City of Lucca

I’m taking a break from posting vacation pictures from last summer to post pictures from our latest adventures.  Apologies for the slow postings – between the considerable time we have devoted to getting ready for our Immigration interview at the Questura, and some of our recent adventures, I haven’t been keeping up.  Our Immigration appointment went pretty smoothly and we are hoping to hear about are approval to remain in Italy within the next month or so, however, due to a conflict with the appointment we had to postpone the start of our Italian lessons until next week.

The next few posts will be of some historic cities we have recently visited.  This one is for the walled city of Lucca, 2hrs west by train from Florence, near Pisa.  A small city, the medieval city center is completely enclosed by a high, wide wall with portas, or arched gates that permit access to the remainder of the city that has expanded outside the wall.  

The city wall rises up to rooftop level for many of the buildings and is wide enough to easily walk and ride bicycles on. 

Angie at one of the wall portas granting access to  the city center.

Inside the wall reveals old buildings and narrow streets.

The basilica at Lucca is quite beautiful, not as large as the ones in Florence but open to the public and very accessible – which is the way churches are supposed to be.

A small city surrounded by mountains, Lucca is off the beaten path and offers a vibe of peace and serenity not found in Florence, as witnessed by Angie below.