This weekend I was left alone. All by myself. Solo. Stefy had popped off to Parma for the weekend and my initial thought was dread. What was I going to do without the other half of 'Jeff'? At first I considered blaring out 'All By Myself' and crying along with Celine Dion…but I didn't. Instead I pumped up Jason Derulo 'Ridin' Solo' and took myself off to Lucca.
Jesssscaaaa Deruloooooo
(this is how Jason introduces the song…felt I should do the same with ma blogpost, ya know?)
Lucca is a super old city with a great big wall all the way around it. By old, I mean that it became a Roman colony in 180 BC, but existed before that too. Back in the day the walls were used for military purposes but these days it provides an amazing promenade around the town. Although a great bike ride/walk, I wanted to get to the good stuff and headed straight into town! I got my map, a cappuccino and a brioche (obv) and planned my route. I was going to start with a piazza, two towers, an amphitheatre and another piazza and then see if I had time to do anything else afterward. Well after 10 minutes of walking I had reached my final destination and completely missed the other things. Lucca is a maze. And I can't read maps. Excellent combo.
The first thing I found though was a lovely garden with a rose exhibition thing. It was only on during March so thought I'd take a look.
Behind this is the spectacular rose garden..
Goodness, look at all those roses
Not a sausage.
Found one!
Feeling a little confused, I turned around and pretended that didn't happen. I mean, there's a chance I didn't understand the sign properly..maybe it was asking for donations so that they could buy some roses?! Who knows.
Anyway, onto Piazza San Francesco.
Chiesa di San Francesco
I am powerless before bunting - there seemed to be a carnevale being prepared, probably for festa della donna, but I think I was a bit early to the party...
Now I should probably mention that I have already been to Lucca many times with my famiglia. And, like Firenze, Mother and I decided what to do. In other words, we went shopping, took pictures and ate great ice cream. My Daddy is still a bit sour grapes about this so I felt I should go culture hunting for him. But that'll happen later. At this point it was getting near to lunch time and I went searching for the 'Anfiteatro'. One of my FAVE family photos ever was taken here...
I was expecting great things from this piazza. Do you think I could find it? No. I was worried that I'd be judged for having lunch at 12.15 - no need to worry though seeing as I finally found it at 1pm!! It's such a sneaky one - it's surrounded by arch ways which don't look like they lead to much.
They do though!
I found a little card shop, bought myself some post cards, found a lovely sunny seat and sat down with the most uhmazinnnn glass of prosecco!
What followed was a super un-photogenic tortelli lucchese and tiramisu…delish. I sat in the sun for a while and then headed off to try and find the next thing! By this stage all the clouds had gone away, so I decided to go up the Torre Giunigi to get a look at the view of Lucca.
By go up, I mean huff&puff up a million steps while trying to remain chic and cool at the same time. No lifts sadly in 180 BC.
View from 1/2 way up
proof
but well worth it!
Had to ask some Italians to take a pic of me to prove I made it!
The views were sooo great, although it was bloody windy and got a bit chilly so I headed back down in search of the next tower. (Which I was not going to climb.)
Again, my excellent navigation skills made this search longer than necessary. I effectively had to walk along one road for approx. 48 seconds and then turn right to reach the Torre delle Ore (Lucca's Big Ben I guess). Well it did not take 48 seconds. However, I persevered and after 20 mins I decided to look up just to see if I could see it peeping over. I was underneath it.
Literally.
Kind of annoyed at myself, but mainly annoyed at the stupid tower, I took one photo and left. As if it was right there the whole time!
I decided to stop planning from this point on - I feel that in Lucca it's better and easier to stumble across things rather than go and actually look for them.
Just have a Lucca-round. (sorry)
I want this house one day
And these flowers
It was actually quite strange wandering around as I recognised so much from our family holidays..aggges ago. Some stuff had changed. Some had not...
As if that was still there!!
Basilica di San Frediano
The Puccini museum was high on Daddy's list, I seem to remember. I didn't go in, but I did go and find him in person to say hi.
Best I could do, Father!
Puccini
San Michele in Foro
I decided to have a pausa and got a cappuccino in this Piazza. I didn't have long left til my train but worked out where I was on the map and I had plenty of time to get back to the station. Except my excellent map skills had failed me once again, and I was in a totally different piazza! Typique.
I turned into a bit of a panic-pants and headed back to the station. I made it though - and managed to get a last glimpse of the Spring blossom that acted like confetti everywhere.
And that was that. Ridin' Solo wasn't at all bad!
