Pisa and Lucca

Finally, time for the much awaited trip to Italy, which we’d been planning over the last couple of months. The plan was to do a bit of a mini roadtrip, crossing Liguria to Tuscany, carrying on to Umbria from there, and coming back via Emilia-Romagna (possibly doing a short stopover at the Adriatic sea).

We set off Saturday morning, a bit worried about the weather after some heavy showers we’d experienced overnight. Crossing Liguria was surprisingly trouble free in terms of traffic, but the weather situation didn’t really improve (we had a fair bit of rain). Things seemed to improve as we approached our first stop, Pisa, as the clouds seemed to lessen and give way to a blue sky. Alas, we were very much mistaken. Barely had we parked our car and made our way to the Piazza dei Miracoli (where the most famous leaning tower in the world is located), before it really started pi**ng it down. We decided it was a good time to grab lunch, and hid ourselves in the nearest tourist trap we could find, where we had ourselves some pizzas. Unfortunately things didn’t really improve after lunch, in fact it got worse.

So, equipped with our “Tuscany sightseeing umbrellas”, we ran like mad through the torrential rain back to our car, and headed for nearby Lucca, where our hotel was located.

Having done our check-in, taken our showers etc, we felt ready to explore town. (thankfully the rain had calmed down by now. We were both immediately taken by the medieval charm of Lucca, and its well-preserved streets and cobble-stoned streets. So we spent the rest of the day quite happily walking around, checking out the sights. After really struggling to find a restaurant with a free table, we eventually found a charming little trattoria where to sate our appetites…

After a night of rather limited sleep (our hotel had its good points, but sound isolation was definitely not one of them), we got up bright ‘n early-ish, and hit the road for Pisa again. This time, the weather was a fair bit nicer, with a blue sky and not a cloud in sight. We started off our visit by checking out the Piazza dei Miracoli, which showcases Pisas main attractions. Apart from the famous tower, there is also the Duomo and the Baptistery.

After contemplating (along with about 1000 other people) the leaning tower for a while, we decided not to pay the 10 euros or whatever to mount the winding staircase. It is certainly a rather pretty tower, but perhaps somewhat overrated as a tourist attraction. It was rather amusing to observe the rows of tourists being photographed “supporting the tower” (I’m not being patronizing here - I would’ve joined the queue straight away but Mathilde refused to take the photo of me ;-). We did visit the duomo and baptistery (which both actually lean as well, although less than the tower), though, and both had rather impressive interiors. Having checked out the “musts”, we strolled around the town centre and along the Arno river… All in all, Pisa is definitely worth a visit, even if the prime sight doesn’t perhaps merit all the fuss…

The afternoon we spent checking out Lucca some more. We started off by a walk around the city walls – apparently an absolute must-do in Lucca. The walls make for a nice enough stroll, but actually the walls aren’t high enough to afford panoramic views. Instead we headed to the Torre Guinigi for the panoramic views. The tower is unusual not only because of the great views it offers, but also for the fact there is an oak tree growing on top of it. We naturally also had to pay visits to a few churches (this is, after all, Tuscany) including the Duomo and the sublime San Michele in Foro. BY now, our stomachs were grumbing. Unfortunately, we hadn’t learnt from last night’s experience, and hadn’t made a reservation, again… So we spent a rather long time walking back and forth across the old town, trying to find a restaurant that would have us. We eventually ended up in a kind of fancy place (border-line pretentious) – which was reflected in the bill, unfortunately.

That brought and end to our stay in Lucca, as we headed off towards Florence the next morning. All in all, Lucca is a very pleasant place for a stop-over, with plenty of things to see. And best of all, it’s not quite been overrun by tourists yet, like for example Pisa.