My Lucca Favorites

Time flies as we all know and now Italy is just memory of the past. I loved Italy, I loved the adventure, and the immersion and everything about it and Lucca was such a wonderful place to study Italian.  It's a small enough town to really feel like you are living in a real town rather than a tourist destination.  

Some of my favs of Italy are.....

Concerts.  Lucca is the birthplace of Puccini and you don't ever lose sight of that when you are here--that's his phenomenal foot in the statue above.   There are nightly Puccini concerts in one of the churches...Mondays were my favorite because it's the Puccini and Mozart night every week.  Here in the square with Puccini's house and museum(and statue), I was even lucky enough to come across a free open square concert.  I love the ladies in the window listening to the concert from their room. 

Palazzo Pfanner has a small little garden that you can see from the walls.  It's full of statues, a large fountain and of course, flowers.  I skipped the house and just chose to garden visit and spent hours reading on a bench.

The amphitheater again...just because it's so historical.  There are a few benches and of course lots of cafes (that may or may not cater more towards tourists). 

Piazza San Michele.  This square is the "center" and always has a street performer or two.  It's another great place to sit and read, with a little Mozart or even contemporary music in the background.

My personal reading place.  Sorry to all the tourists who wanted to take a photo without someone sitting under the statue.

I'm not going to lie...I love having access to familiar things.  How cute is this Sephora?

There's always a debate in Italy about the best pizza and the locals like this one.  I tend to prefer the more Napoletana type crust that is thicker and chewier, but for Lucca, this one is tops in my book.  The crust is thinner and bit crispy but full of that awesome wood-fired taste.  I tried a lot of pizza in Lucca to be able to tell you all that this was the best.  There's an inexplicable phenomenon in Italy where pizza crusts and breads are not salted.  Salt girl that I am, I wasn't the biggest fan and I found that many places compensated by over-salting the pizza sauce.  Pizza da Felice did not.

They whack off a piece with their ginormo knife and you pay by the kilo.

Lucca is also known for their chickpea flour pizza--the crunchy, salty cheese makes it all happen. 

La Grotta has salames, hams and pestos.  To me, it was the place to pick up fresh mozzarella.

Best bread in the city at Forno a Vapore although I really bought only focaccia which was outstanding.  There's a generous sprinkling of salt on focaccia.

And this little square right off of Via Buia, is a great place to people watch....locals bring their water bottles to fill.

No bottle, no problem.  There's also a green grocer here where I bought fruits and veggies.

This cafe is outside the city walls near the school but I had to include it.  Marco and his beautiful wife serve up the best cafes and cornettos I found in all of Italy.  This was my daily go-to place. 

If you are in Lucca, it only makes sense to take advantage of one of the many towers available for climbing.  I chose to climb Guinigi Tower for views of the terra cotta skylines across this beautiful city.  

And of course, some things are just fun little surprises you encounter while exploring a city.  I am already missing Lucca. 

Festa di Santa Croce, Lucca

September is a good month to be in Lucca and many people know it.  Classes have literally tripled in size.  I learned that people often choose to come to Lucca in Sept. to learn italian because of the September events.  Currently, there's a film festival occurring and every Italian I've met thus far has used "film festival" interchangeably with "David Lynch."  Apparently he's a kind of a big deal here.   He may actually be a big deal back home but I did have to google him. I'll admit that I'm embarrassingly lacking in film knowledge and I think Top Gun is a fantastic cultural film.  Shame on me right?

The biggest of the big festivals in Lucca is the Festa di Santa Croce, and what a town party it was.  During Santa Croce, the city is lit up........in candles.  When we first walked around the corner it looked like Christmas lights (oh happy me).  A slightly closer inspection and you see that this city actually put up and lit thousands, upon thousands of candles.  Sister cities from around the world visit and participate in the processional of Volto Santo or Holy Face.  David Lynch may have to share his title because Volto Santo is definitely a big deal here.  It's a wooden carving attributed back to contemporaries of Joseph Arimathea and is referenced in Dante's Inferno.  Lucca is believed to have had possession of this relic since the 700s.   While I'm familiar with Holy Grail stories as they pertain to medieval literature and Arthurian legend, it was pretty fascinating to learn about these Holy Grail type legends within Italian culture.

I couldn't even begin to capture the number of candles that were put up in the city.  We watched men in ladder trucks still taking down lights weeks after the event ended.  

Piazza San Michele, barely standing room only.

What's an Italian festa without an Italian aperitivo?  The aperol spritz has become a wonderful, warm weather friend.  It's a bit on the sweet side but when in Italy....

The processional ends inside of the church of San Martino.  The young and more ambitious than me crowd stays (or comes) for the midnight fireworks show.  It sounded like quite the show as I listened to it from the welcoming comfort of my bed.

Lazy Sunday Mornings in Lucca

There's just so much to see and do in here that I'm constantly seeking out new places to visit.  Somewhere in all these towns and places visited, I've neglected posting about Lucca more--the one place I spend at least part of every day.  After a pretty busy week that included a wine festival and finally hiking Cinque Terre, I opted for another lazy Sunday morning in Lucca.  It's the kind of town that is made for lazy Sunday mornings.  

Of course, my favorite time in Lucca is early morning...I love to bike on the wall early before the crowds are up and then walk through town as the cafes begin to open.  

This little one is la bicicletta that gets me to and fro.  I've become a good friends with her despite the fact that she doesn't have gears and makes me stand up to pedal up hills.  Do you remember summertime bike races and pedaling while standing up as a kid?  It was much easier as a child for sure.

And this is Lucca's famous wall.  I think I mentioned in a former post that Lucca's old town/center is completely encircled by a wall.  It's not just any wall either, this one's a super wide wall with parks, picnic areas, tables, benches and a big biking/walking path.  It's really more of a town park than just a regular 'ole 4km long wall. 

Any time of the day you can find runners, walkers and bicyclists up here.  Lucca has bike rental places galore which makes this popular with locals and tourists.   I will say that I still struggle with the lack of rules when it comes to walking here...there is no walk on the right--pass on the left, or take only half of the walkway, or any other rules.  If there's a crowd of 5 people walking together, they will walk 5 people across and will not necessarily move for you or your bicycle.  Aside from relearning the art of pedaling while standing, I'm still working on the craft of balancing on a bike while traveling 0 miles per hour, waiting for a gap in the path.   Interestingly though, once you are on the street with your bike, you suddenly have a bit more clout--I still hesitate in traffic circles wondering if that ginormous delivery truck really is going to stop and yield to the bike already in the traffic circle and so far they have.  Lucky for me. 

Obviously the views from the wall as you are circling the city are pretty fun....Cattedrale di San Martino from the back.  

Learning to ride la biciclette in a dress or skirt is essential in Italy. Check.  I didn't bring heels or I'd try that next.

The third weekend of each month, Lucca hosts the second oldest flea market. I was able to visit a few Sundays ago after my morning bike ride around the wall--it really draws a crowd.

This morning there was a small craft fair near Piazza St. Michele and, well, another little event. 

I've often thought that being here sometimes feels a bit like being in a WWII film as the buildings and countryside are timeless.  In light of having this thought rather frequently, you can imagine my surprise and millisecond of panic when I  walked around a large crowd of people and saw this...

This week was the anniversary of the Lucca's Liberation during WWII.   As you already know, Italy formed part of the Axis during WWII but this resulted in a civil war within Italy ending in Mussolini being deposed by his people.  The Nazis and Mussolini's remaining supporters/troops were obviously not thrilled about this turn of events and fought hard to retain Italy.  Sept 5th marks the anniversary of the day that the Allies entered Lucca.  

My WWI and WWII knowledge is a bit lacking and so I learned something new today.  Sadly, during WWI and WWII, the US segregated military divisions.  The 92nd Infantry Division (Buffalo Soldiers) was one of the African American units--one of the few that saw combat action during WWII.  It was this unit, fighting with Allied forces and the Italian Resistance, that liberated Lucca.  It was pretty awesome to be able to view this living memorial in person.  

After a little biking, walking and history lesson, Piazza Napoleone is the perfect place to sit with a cappuccino and pastry and take notes from passersby on how to ride a bike gracefully and effortlessly in a skirt.  As you can see, it does not involve standing and pedaling full speed ahead like a 6 year old boy.