Lovely Lucca

After Montalcino, I drove to Lucca. It was a decent drive of 2.5 hours and 185km, and mostly scenic.

I spent 5 nights in Lucca from November 27 through December 1, 2019. As I arrived, city crews were beginning to hang the Christmas lights, which were a bit different: words to carols.

Christmas lights in Lucca

Lucca is a walled city, and parking in the city center is by permit only, so I parked inside the walls (barely), but on the periphery and about a 20 minute walk from the Airbnb I stayed at. This Airbnb was one of the few where a person actually met me to show me the apartment. It was quite nice with a living room/kitchen, bedroom, nice bath with washer/dryer combo, and a family room!

Airbnb in Lucca

It was quiet, and only a couple blocks from the main shopping street, next to a nice piazza with a church (of course) and a couple of caffès, one was modern and the other classic. I had my usual "una brioche e un espresso" (o force due--or maybe two) at the Caffè Biscotteria Santa Zita most mornings, a pleasant start to the day.

Caffè Biscotteria Santa Zita, Lucca

I could start this story as many do, especially those by Peanut's Snoopy, "It was a dark and stormy night." But it wasn't actually stormy, just rainy and overcast. It reminded me of Seattle where it's overcast, and rains gently and intermittently. Even so, it was a pleasant time of year to be in Lucca. Shoppers were out preparing for Christmas and hitting the Black Friday sales (which often were advertised as Black Week sales).  And yes, the Italians have adopted the American names and purposes in this as in so many other things. I spent Thanksgiving in Lucca, but there was no evidence of that American tradition, even if they did borrow the commercial aspect.

Lucca is a walking city. It's fun to just wander the streets and lanes, many of which are pedestrian-only or with very restricted traffic, and find some interesting old church or residence, or small piazza. And it is old, having been founded by the Etruscans in the 3rd century B.C.E. before it became a Roman outpost.  There are remains of a Roman amphitheater in the form a buildings that mimic the amphitheater walls, even if there are no actual walls to be seen.

I found this in my peregrinations:

Lintel over main door of Cattedral di San Martino di Lucca

You might recognize the center figure over the door of the Lucca Cathedral. This part of the Cathedral, the west front, was built starting in 1204 C.E.

Some art aficionado during the Renaissance and living in Lucca must have taken a liking to the terra-cotta pieces of the della Robbia family. You see them in quite a few churches and museums in Lucca.

The Annunciation, School of Andrea della Robbia, in the Basilica di San Frediano

Basilica di San Frediano

You can also seek out the more famous aspects of the town. Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, and heaven help the local merchants if they didn't take advantage of that fact! Within the Piazza Cittadella (aka Piazzale Puccini), sits a statue of Signor Puccini and on the surrounding sides of the square are several restaurants: Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Turandot. I didn't eat in any, but one must presume dinner is accompanied by opera singers (or not :-).

Puccini, seated, with his birthplace on the corner

And being in Tuscany, of course there are towers. Not as many as San Gimignano, but a few. I took a climb up the bell tower next to the Church of Saints John and Reparata (Chiesa dei Santi Giovanni e Reparata). I must say it was a bit scary at times--it was dark and the stairs were very narrow, especially at the turns near the top. It didn't help that I suffer a bit of acrophobia, the railing didn't seem sturdy enough to me, and was doing this with no one around! But the view was wonderful, even if obscured by wire mesh.

Bell Tower at Chiesa dei Santi Giovanni e Reparata

In following the theme throughout my trip, I sought out Lucca's finer restaurants and wine bars. There are quite a few very good ones, although I didn't find any that rose to the highest levels I'd found (e.g., Lio Pellegrini in Bergamo or La Bottega del Buon Caffè in Florence). Ristorante Buca di Sant'Antonio was very good, though, with a nice dish of egg fettuccine with butter and black truffles:

Ristorante Buca di Sant'Antonio in Lucca, truffled pasta

Ristorante Buca di Sant'Antonio in Lucca

or the scallops three ways, with a nice Blaubergunder (pinot noir) from J. Hofstätter at Ristorante all'Olivo.

Ristorante all'Olivo

As a final mention in this food section, I went to a food expo in a renovated convent near where I was staying. There were all foods Italian. Meat purveyors of everything from prosciutto to veal to wild boar and venison. Breads of the most delectable aspect. Pasticceria. Honeys and jams. Truffles. You name it, it was on display (and sale). But one of the most Italian of sweets is hot chocolate; this isn't your mother's hot chocolate! It is literally melted chocolate served in a cup; a little goes a very long way.

Italian hot chocolate

At the end of my stay in Lucca, I took a tour of the famous Lucchese walls. There have been four stages, the first of which started with the Roman city walls in 200 B.C.E. Eventually, the fourth were constructed beginning in 1513 and took a century to complete. While built for defense, they were never needed for that purpose. They were demilitarized during the Napoleonic era at which time the Passeggiata delle Mura Urbane was created--that is a walkway, now also a park, on top of the old walls that provides a pleasant and (or?) energetic way to spend some time. Lucca is unique in having its walls intact. Most other Italian cities tore them down once they were no longer needed (or useful) as defensive structures.

Passeggiata delle Mura Urbane on the city walls of Lucca

A bastion on the Lucca walls near Piazza San Frediano

Lucca was a nice interlude between wine regions.  While it is part of Tuscany, it is closer to Pisa and the Mediterranean than Florence and the bigger wine regions of Chianti, Montalcino, and Montepulciano. It is a pleasant walking town and has a number of places of interest to visit (I left out my visit to the Museo Nazionale Villa Guinigi). But it doesn't have the pizzaz of some of the other places I visited. It's one of those places that people live in, rather than a center of attention. I enjoyed my 5 days there and if I had stayed longer, I would have travelled further afield--day trips to Pisa, Livorno, La Spezia would all be possible, and if you have a car, a visit to Carrara to see the mountain of marble that has supplied sculptors the world over.

But alas, I did not take those trips. And now it is time to go to Alba, la prossima e penultima Città, and home to the Alba White Truffle, Il Tartufo Bianco di Alba, and center of the Langhe area of Piemonte, home to Barbera, Barolo, and Barbaresco.