Lucca

Worlds apart from intense and frenetic Naples, Lucca is tranquil and serene by comparison. Travel yesterday was agreeably smooth and uneventful … trains left on time and were barely full. Daniele met us on the platform as the train pulled in … commandeered both our suitcases and strode off a whole 4 minutes …. under the railway tracks and along a quiet road to the apartment. And what a place! Beautifully appointed … with gleaming, modern appliances but gorgeous original tiles and tasteful, yet whimsical touches. A place to sink into, relax and call home for the next 3 weeks.

There’s a salumeria two doors down … selling meats, cheeses and a smattering of other groceries. A Fruit and vegetable shop at the end of the street …. barely the width of a door and window, but like Aladdin’s cave, goes on and on towards to back. Produce lovingly displayed in boxes and shelves. A deli counter … plus a surprising selection of milk and other basic needs. No pane? I inquired … Si, si, and around the counter, tucked away in covered containers, lovely crusty, rustic loaves. This is my kind of shop. There are also fully stocked Supermarkets a ten minute walk away in either direction.

Lucca is a city of walls and towers … it’s the last remaining town in Italy to have retained all of its protective walls which today are in constant use by locals and visitors alike … to walk, run and cycle atop the wide, tree-lined avenues. We are just outside the walls near Bastion San Pietro with its portal through into the old city … complete with enormous wooden gates and medieval portcullis … looking as though it could descend at any moment. There’s a moat, too … although today it’s more of a meandering channel. Clusters of plants have taken up residence along the walls and ramparts … as have the pigeons roosting overnight.

Inside, the old city is a jumble of walkways and piazzas, leading the unwary sightseer ever deeper with every twist and turn … leaving them completely disorientated without the walls for reference. But it’s enjoyable getting lost and marveling at each new discovery … aromas of baking bread, leather, coffee and wisteria (blooming everywhere) waft through the air, intermingling with sunny piazzas, narrow pedestrian streets, tall, square towers (there’s one with TREES on top), and trades vehicles patiently inching forward behind drifts of tourists.

We rented bikes for an hour and cycled right around the walls – through avenues of trees with bird song all around.. A film crew was doing a major set up part way along the walls, allowing pedestrians and single bikes access, but not the multi-person “rickshaws” https://www.tourist-cart.com.tw/EN/Bicycle_Tourist_Cart_4_person_style.html … we Googled and found that Peter Greenaways $15 million production, starring Dustin Hoffman and Helen Hunt, was to be filmed entirely in Lucca https://www.toscanafilmcommission.it/en/lucca-turns-into-a-set-for-the-shooting-of-peter-greenaways-new-movie/

Tucked away in one corner is Orto Botanico di Lucca … a modest triangle of a garden crammed with a remarkable collection of plants, shrubs, trees and cactus from all over the world … each one neatly labeled. The garden celebrated its bicentennial in 2020 and in pride of place is a massive Cedar of Lebanon as old as the garden. There were greenhouses full of cacti in eye-catching shapes, sizes and colours (one was even blue) …. lemons the size of melons …. camelias, azaleas and rhodos in abundance. Rafts of waterlilies drifted across the miniature lake, and what at first looked like glossy black rocks, turned into a pile of large terrapins on the shore. One brightly coloured male came stumping over to see who was invading his territory, and marched defiantly up and down … his beady black eye watching us carefully.