Montecatini Trip - 5 - Lucca

Wednesday 29th June 2005 - Lucca

Off along the old road to Lucca, I found we could park outside the old city walls, free under the trees. The walls date from 1590 & are even more formidable than those of Pamplona. We walked in through a narrow, dark gateway & through a series of defences before entering the old city. Not having a clue where we had come in & the guide book only covering the centre area, we stopped at the first museum to ask. They presented us with a free town plan but had difficulty in locating themselves on it! But we were ok, first visiting the gloomy St Francis church but which had modern stained glass & then, making our way, dodging from shade to shade (the story of the day, as it was as hot as ever) to the amphitheatre, which is very impressive. From there, southish to the watch tower with the trees on it but it was too hot to climb it. Thence, to the San Martino cathedral, which was spacious, if not very light. The café outside was outrageously expensive, as had been the amphitheatre one (E2.80-3 for a coffee), so were ignored. However, the one outside the theatre had normal prices, so we had coffee & decent sandwiches, E7 for two altogether. We liked the Piazza Napoleon a lot & the San Michele church, which we could not enter but had interesting pillars outside, about 1260 like the cathedral which had been modernised then, the original building, which is huge, dating from the 1000s. Puccini's birthplace was closed & the builders were in. We then gradually made our way back to the car, where Avis ate her bootleg breakfast sandwich. I drove to the autostrada & was back in Montecatini in 11 minutes flat for E1.10, so presumably, they have different rates for different times of day. We had a snooze & got into the pool. I had not-very-good dry chicken for dinner but Avis had good salmon.