Lucca was a great place to hang out for a week – walled city, quiet or as a quiet as an Italian city can be. Very few cars have permits to drive within the walls so most of the “traffic” problems occur when walking in narrow streets with pedestrians, bicyclists, dog walkers with small and large dogs, baby strollers, delivery trucks and the occasional car. We saw one Belgian car driving down the main shopping street. The passenger looked terrified, chewing on her hands. We’re not sure whether they were supposed to be on that street but the Italians just went with the flow, getting out of their way.
One of the many bell towers in Lucca on churches
This truck did manage to squeeze through but he rubbed the scarves outside the shop along the way.
The weekend before we got to Lucca, the Rolling Stones performed outside of the walls in one of the open areas. We were told the city was crazy with 60000 people and all the hotels and restaurants were completely sold out. One lady told us that Lucca negotiated for 2 years to get the Rolling Stones to perform there.
The walls are not what we think of when we say walls. These are very wide – wide enough for cyclists, walkers, runners, a park or two, benches, picnic tables. The Italian life in Lucca seems to swirl around and on the walls.
Susan standing on the walls of Lucca while we were out walking.
Lucca city walls
People walked, ran and biked all along the 4 km. of walls.
This is one of the gates into the city. The walls are surrounded by parkland requiring regular mowing.
We rented an apartment via AirBnB in Lucca and it was on the ground floor. It is ALSO across the tiny little street from a Bicycle Rental shop that, unknown to us, rents tandem bikes as well as regular bikes. This part of the city is pedestrian except for bicycles and cars and trucks with special stickers. You can imagine the chaos at times – people, baby carriages, bikes, tiny cars, delivery trucks, store displays, you get the idea.
I have the front window open while I work on the blog and we heard a crash of metal and 2 girls laughing. They had American voices and talked to the bike store lady. Turns out they’d rented a tandem bike and were trying to ride it. The shop worker gave them a few pointers and off they went again only to return in about one minute and tell the shop owner “We give up on the tandem bike. We can’t ride with all these people around . There are too many lives at stake!”
Lucca has strict regulations about garbage and recycle or so our host told us – specific days and times for garbage being out and what recycle is put out on what day. You can also use the recycle bins around the neighborhoods. We had an RFID card to open the respective bins for biological waste, plastic/mixed material, paper, and everything else. The bins don’t open without the card. The bins themselves are actually below ground and raise up when the garbage collectors come along.
The bins go back down into the ground after they are empty
Several times we ran into singers performing near the house where Puccini was born. These guys sang before a local fashion show started.
These guys performed 2 songs before a local fashion show started.
We tried to cook at home and drink wine and prosecco from the grocery store after we discovered how inexpensive the drinks are.
This is the receipt for the prosecco . It really was about 2.50 euros for a bottle and was pretty good. The grocery store was giving away the Harry Potter movie figures.
2.50 euro prosecco
We sampled lots of gelato, too. What started out as a research project (eat LImone gelato at a different stand everyday) was quickly abandoned when we tried the limone gelato at GROM – nice and sour! The lady serving looked at us strangely every time we asked for 2 scoops of only limone but it was too tasty to share a cone with some other flavor. In reality the research project would require at least 2 months to try all of the gelato stands or we’d have to eat gelato two or more times a day to sample them more quickly.
We tried De Cervesia (tap room) one night when we discovered they sell Italian craft beer. The address is Via Michele Rosi 20 and it’s at the intersection of 2 streets with a very little sign only on the window. People have a tendency to sit on the bench in front of the window so you need to looks for the building number. Can you tell me had a bit of trouble finding it?
The bar was tiny and had no tables inside or out. We bought our beer (2 euro deposit for each glass – returned when we returned the glass) and joined the crowd outside on the sidewalks drinking their beers. The bartender let us taste all 5 beers they served before we decided which one to drink. The one sour beer they served is made in Italy and 80% of it is exported. Mark got one of the last glasses of the sour beer.
The bartender filling a glass of the sour beer.
This was the little area where everyone, including us, drank beer and wine.
A description of Lucca wouldn’t be complete without mentioning churches – everywhere! We saw a new use for Pyrex bowls in church. Another sold t-shirts and hats along with rosaries – something for everyone!
St. Michele church had t-shirts and hats for sale.
A new use for Pyrex bowls
Overall summary of Lucca – churches and gelato everywhere, small shops, narrow streets, peaceful, many tourists
I love the retractable garbage bins – what a great idea! And I was fascinated by the wide walls. Had no idea. Sounds like a great place to visit.
My friend was in Lucca for a few months and we stayed with her for a month! Loved Lucca, the wall, biking and walking on the wall, the little food markets with fresh pasta, cheese and bread, the market selling all kinds of stuff and yummy gelato. Limone was my fav too! Lizzy did a research project and try to test gelato at every shop!