Lucca

Planning a 10 day trip to Italy is hard. There's so much to see, and you just can't see it all unless you want to run yourself ragged. One of the biggies I decided not to squeeze in was Venice. I let that one go. I couldn't let the opportunity to spend a few days in Tuscany pass us by. Tuscany was a 'must do' for us. So... I settled on a city called "Lucca". Now I don't really hear about Lucca when people talk about their travels to Italy, or Tuscany for that matter, but it sounded like a perfect place for Greg and I to set up home base for a few days. And boy was I right!

Lucca is an ancient walled city between Pisa and Florence. Many, many years ago the city walls were extraordinarily fortified to keep out invaders and cannon blasts. The story holds that Napoleon took a liking to Lucca and his widow later played a part in creating a park all along the top of the walls. It now has a paved bike trail that circles the city. We figured it out and the bike trail is probably the same length as the trail that circles Wash Park in Denver. Although with all the buildings and towers, piazzas and so forth, it was really hard to imagine all of this city fitting into Wash Park. Furthermore, Lucca does not allow cars in the city center. Lucca is home to bikes, bikes, and more bikes. (Make sure to check out the stoplight in the picture below!)


Need I mention that my husband thought he died and went to heaven when we passed three bike shops in the first half mile????

Our lodging was about a half mile outside the city walls. The place was dated from the 1300's yet was remodeled in a pleasant modern way that still maintained it's old world charm without feeling, well, old. (TripAdvisor.com is such a great resource! Whatever did we do before the internet???)
One of the things we discovered about this little town--there was always something going on. When we arrived they had an old car show going on in one of the main squares. Walking around our first evening we discovered an open air movie showing. One of the main piazzas was being taken over by a concert set up. (Sheryl Crow would be there the day after we left! Bummer!) We also stumbled upon another square that was built atop an ancient Roman amphitheater. We had a ball enjoying a big talent show being hosted by a local radio station our first night. While a movie in Italian didn't draw us in, music is universal no matter what language it is in. Our nights were fully and cheaply entertained.


Being in a city of bicycles, we had to rent bikes! We took an entire day and rode all over the city, then tried our hands at the streets outside the city walls and made our way out to the beautiful Tuscan countryside for awhile. Looking at a map we noticed that there were some ancient aqueducts on the other side of the city going into the mountains. Could we ride that far on our country bumpkin bikes??? Couldn't hurt to try, right? They're just rentals! So we did!

The aqueducts were neat because not only are they a marvel of ancient engineering, it just seems like the countryside said, "Oh yeah, aqueducts. Just ignore them and leave em'." We had a blast exploring and following them all the way to the hills where they dipped into the hillside.
Lucca was what a relaxing enjoyable vacation should be for two people that enjoy bicycling. :) Greg said this was probably his favorite part of the whole trip.