Farewell to our apartment “home” in Florence, and by bus mostly on the autostrada to Lucca. We quickly found our comfortable hotel, and soon settled in.
Lucca is a pleasant town, notable for its massive tree-lined ramparts outside of which is mostly a further ring of grassed area, resulting from a decree in medieval times that the area had to be cleared so that any any approaching enemies could be seen! The civic fathers have thoughtfully retained the grass but on the far side there is in parts a dense row of trees. Thus, from the ramparts, you are often shielded of the view of suburbia beyond – guess the risk of pesky Florentines creeping through the suburbs isn't too great these days. Inside the walls are narrow streets (often straight, a legacy from the Romans), a number of plazas and the inevitable shops largely catering to the tourists (both at the souvenir level and the designer labels, and most things in between!). Lucca claims Puccini as one of its sons (he was born here, and his funeral was here), so there are regular concerts featuring his works. Cycling is also encouraged, particularly as the ramparts are very suitable for it, but it means that you really have to be careful when walking the narrow streets. No wonder they don't allow bikes in Venice. We're here for two nights, in a pleasant but quite upmarket hotel. At least we get a large comfortable room for our euros.
We had dinner tonight at a restaurant that offered traditional Tuscan fare – farmer's cabbage soup, chicken with beans, tuna and brown bean salad and veal stew with zucchini. Needless to say, Sue hasn't had any MSG issues so far. She regards the food in Lucca as the best she has had so far in Italy!
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