Lucca

Lucca is an enchanting city and is mostly encompassed by the walls surrounding it. The walls were built by the Romans to protect the City and now they have a path that runs around the top of the walls where you can bike, walk, jog, whatever. Also, there are many benches and parks along the way to stop and enjoy the views. I chose to explore by bike today and it was fun to be not quite at a bird’s eye view but high enough up to see what was happening yet still being engaged. A city looks different from two stories up.

Yesterday, so un-Lucchesi of me, I ventured outside the city walls and explored some of the neighborhoods. Nothing noteworthy to report except it was fun to see the old women on their bikes with heels. The woman on the bike in the photo turned her head when she realized I was taking her picture. The main square in town offers a beautiful carousel with images of Lucca hand painted on the top and how can you not love that about a town. The children alternatively go for the carousel or the pigeons for a game of chase.

A Lucca trivia fact is that Puccini was born and raised here although he is known as a rebel after falling in love and fathering a child with someone else’s wife and thinking he was better than being the church organist. Lucca holds a year long festival to celebrate his music and how could I not partake in that – all Puccini, all year, who could resist. The program last night consisted of 3 duets and 4 arias from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Puccini’s Don Giovanni. These were performed by two opera singers and accompanied by a pianist. The festival is held in one of the churches here and has been “remodeled” to use for these purposes. Being in Italy with late night dining almost mandatory, I thought I’d wait until after the operatic performances to grab a bite to eat. That was a mistake. The performance was over at 8:45 and the town was almost asleep by then. Shops and restaurants were closed and after about a 20 minute walk around town, the only places serving food were gelaterias and pizzerias so I opted for the pizza, surprising I know. Tonight, on the other hand, the bar across the street was having a tacos and tequila night -- interesting for this small Italian town. I popped in and found that their idea of tacos were tortilla chips and the tequila being served was Jose Cuervo. My first thought was, what were they thinking and my second thought was, how spoiled are we to think this is not acceptable. I opted for a glass of wine and a few tortilla chips and then bid arrivederci so I could update my blog before bedtime.

The one thing that continues to surprise me is that locals or other travelers approach me, in Italian, for directions and about 50% of the time I can help and the other 50%, I just throw up my hands or offer my map. In shops, I greet the clerks in Italian, can mangle my way through to ask what I’m looking for and then of course, they start rattling off in Italian back. I think my vocabulary is up to about 50 words and I can even make some sentences – just don’t ask me anything too fast that requires more than a one word response :)

Tomorrow afternoon I'm off to Florence for the weekend, then to Milan for a couple of days and then up to Bellagio in the Lake District.