Lucca

We drove on, a whole 20 miles or less, to Lucca, up in the hills, but not a hill town. It is almost completely flat, surrounded by a great old but not very high wall, a great bicycle town. It doesn't have any particularly famous nor wonderful art nor architecture. It's just a very pleasant beautiful old city, with great ambience and ease of getting around. We spent a couple nights in the camper-stop there, a fair 10 euros a night, just outside the wall, including one do-nothing and then rest day.

A section of Lucca's city wall

Up on the wall, great for walking, bicycling, etc.

Piazza Napoleon; when Napoleon conquered much of Italy, he

gave Lucca to his sister

The clock tower, one of many towers

Looking up at another, the Guingi Tower

Lucca was Pucini's birthplace; the Geburthaus,

so to speak, will open as a museum September

13

Interior of a nice little Pucini memento store;

my favorite Italian opera composer

Ancient entrance to what is probably Lucca's most interesting

sight...

The Piazza Anfiteatro; all these old buildings--you can just

make out the curve in this shot--are ranged around what used

to be the Roman amphitheater

There it is; Google Earth to the rescue...

Lucca's Duomo, 12th-13th century, the most

remarkable part being the great variety of

columns on the facade

Thus

Interior

A Tintoretto Last Supper

And, on the porch, a maze (the pilgrim's ordeal) just as at

Chartres