a day in lucca

Our first day in Florence was spent...in Lucca! We really wanted to do a day trip, and it just happened that the best day for us to do it was our first full day in Florence. Originally, we were going to rent a car and go on a hike from the Tuscan hiking book we bought. Then we started thinking about how expensive car rentals are. And how much gas is. And how we won't be used to driving on Italian roads. And so it continued. So while we'd almost decided to cancel the whole hiking trip thing, I just happened across the path (sorry) of a trail that was within a short walk of a train stop! And it had really pretty views...and it was at the same train stop as a cute looking medieval town! So, it was set. We knew very little about both the trail and the town before we went, but it was a tiny adventure, so that was fine.





It felt like home, starting the day off with a moka pot :) We caught an early train so we'd have a bunch of time in Lucca. By the way, I can't say enough good things about the train system in Italy - there were so many of them, they were punctual, they were fast (even the regional, "slow", train to Lucca was fast!), clean, comfy, cheap!!...etc. Such a difference from our once-a-day Amtrak trains. So we left around 8am and the train ride was around an hour and a half. It made lots of local stops, so we got to admire the pretty valley along the way. As soon as we arrived in Lucca, we headed for the trailhead - it was only about two blocks from the train station!





The trail follows along the side of an 18th-century aqueduct! It was crushed stone, so it was easy to walk without hiking shoes (didn't have room in our suitcases for those). There were just a few other people on the trail - biking, walking dogs, and pushing strollers. To be fair, it was a Thursday morning! As the trail got farther from the town of Lucca, the land got more open and agricultural. We could see mountains in the distance the whole time, and everything was so pretty!











We walked past olive groves and goats - the goat pen smelled exactly like delicious goat cheese! The closer we got, the more our tummies started to rumble (especially on the way back). The whole time, we were heading towards the mountains. In fact, if we'd continued hiking all day, we'd go up through the mountains and eventually end up in Pisa! It's about a 7-hour hike and would be really cool to do if we'd had the time. The trail itself is an old trail - the via Francigena - that links a bunch of Franciscan churches and goes through England, France, and Italy. It would be fun to do the whole thing!!









After a little more than an hour, we reached the foothills of the mountains and decided we should turn back toward Lucca. We had a pretty view, even from our low vantage point!











And after walking back the way we'd came, we arrived at the gate of Lucca! Like I said before - we knew very little about Lucca before we went there. We knew it was a medieval town that hadn't been touched in World War II, it had a wall that went all the way around it, it was very walkable...and that was about it!







We got an espresso and croissant and sat in the piazza in front of the cathedral to look at our Lonely Planet guidebook to Tuscany, which had a section on Lucca. We learned that it was an independently-ruled state for over 500 years (it was never ruled by the Medici and only was conquered by Napoleon). Dante spent some time there. Puccini was from there! It has tasty tuscan food, like porcini mushrooms and wild boar and risotto, and there are lots of good restaurants if you walk around. It's known for its many towers and there are two that you can climb to the top of (we climbed one later!). Perfect for a day of strolling!







First we wandered over to lunch, in an alley off a shopping street. I had possibly the best pasta of my life (???). It was fresh noodles with porcini mushrooms in butter-sage sauce and it was a-maazing! Porcini mushrooms were just in season so I thought I had to try them! So glad I did. Matt got tortellini in a walnut sauce which was also really, really good. And we shared fried zucchini & zucchini flowers. Mmm! After lunch, we decided to see what the medieval walls were all about - we'd heard they were nice to walk on.









We didn't realize the wall would be so thick!! It felt like strolling through a park that encircled the city. It was so nice! It hardly felt like what I thought a wall should feel like, but I guess it's done a pretty good job of keeping Lucca safe for the past few hundred years, so they obviously knew what they were doing.







Once we'd walked around most of the town, we came down and wandered through town some more. And made our way over to the tower!





This tower is special because it has seven oak trees growing on top of it - there's a legend that says when one of the family who owned it died, all of the leaves fell off at once.











It was quite a climb, but the view was worth it! The whole town of Lucca and beyond stretched out in front of us! The mountains we'd hiked towards earlier, and the mountains on the other side of the valley (it's such a pretty place - it's in between two mountain ranges). The green ribbon that circles the city is the city wall with all of its trees!









Afterward, we went in a grocery shop and bought some local olive oil and Lucchese wine. After that, we decided to take the next train home and made our way back to the train station. Trains ran every hour, and it was really nice that we could hop on one whenever we wanted.









We got back to Florence around 5:30pm and ate another grocery store dinner of fresh fruit, cheese, and meat. Afterwards, we were going to go to a museum that was open late that night but decided we were too tired to fully enjoy it so instead, we just wandered around near the duomo.









Our first sighting of it, and very cool (and not at all crowded) at night! We went to bed early that night because we'd had a long & enjoyable day!