Lucca didn’t need fireworks, men on horseback or architectural feats to grab my attention, Why people stay in Florence when Lucca is only 90 mins further up the train line I dont know… why anybody would dream of staying in Pisa when lucca is only 20 mins up the train line is something that will baffle me for quite some time, but it is to my gain so why worry.

Lucca is immediately recognisable by the well preserved walls that suround the old city, these are impressive not only beacuse of the fucntion they served but simply due to the size of the undertaking, Lucca isn’t a small city and it has been surrounded by a set of walls wide enough to carry a road, parks and treelined avenues along its top. The 4.5 km walk around the city walls give you great views of lucca itself and also of the surrounding countryside.

I arrived in Lucca from Florence after a gruelling 1 and a half hour wait at santa maria novella train station in florence. Made my way into the city and wandered around for a while looking for a room, there were plenty of places available so rather than take a chance i figured i would go down to the tourist centre and use their booking service. Everything went swimmingly and i soon found myself at Le Torre a small affitacamare very close to the centre of the town, comfortable room with bath. The rooms are owned by an interesting couple who i was pleased to find out where quite happy to have their guests sit down and talk to them and also didnt speak much english at all. I made use of the free italian language lessons a great deal over the next few days.

Lucca’s town centre had a very interesting mix of residential, commercial, ancient and not so ancient areas, The balance was quite pleasing for me, dotted with narrow streets arranged in a way that you somehow find yourself back where you started from even though you thought you had travelled in a reasonably straight line.

Great views of and from the town walls, lots of locals still living and working in the town centre, tourists sure,but i never felt like i was about to drown in them, and staff in shops and restaurants that are and speak .. italian… yes florence was behind me.

My initiation of the wonders of Lucca was complete by the end of the night, after walking into the amfoteatro in Lucca the afternoon sun bouncing off the walls of some of the buildings that surround the oval shaped piazza, I hadn’t seen anything quite like it before and was happy to pay some inflated prices for a beverage or three. After i had soaked in the sights i wandered off to Trattoria Gigi conveniently plonked just around the corner from the hotel i was staying in.

My entire experience at gigi was terrific, great food, daily menu, very reasonable prices, wine, service with a smile, hey they even have a great web site, test your italian and find the daily menu. Gigi also delivered Elena to me, my words for her aren’t for public comsumption but elena, if youre out there… grazie, tu sei belissima, ci vidiamo.