Our Travel Blog

While in Pisa, we had to take the obligatory picture with the tower: Here are pics inside the Cathedral in Pisa:

We had an easy walk to the train station in the dark at 5 AM, but we felt completely safe in Lucca. We wanted to make a quick stopover in Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. We would love to at least visit Lucca in June and July of every year for Lucca's jazz and classical music festivals. A taxi is unnecessary when visiting Lucca because the city is very walkable. One tip, d on't get in a hurry at a dinner in Italy. Take the time to have another drink. You will have to ask, "Il conto, per favore," for the bill.

We had the most amazing day in Lucca. We did not have anything planned, so we were able to let Lucca sweep over us and truly wander. `While wondering the city, we found buccolotto (a raisin pastry from Lucca) in a bakery in the Piazza di San Michele. The pictures below are of Chiesa di San Michele at the piazza: We visited the birthplace of Giacomo Puccini. He was a 5th generation musical composer. Unfortunately, the musical talent ended with his generation. The next pictures are views we had inside of the house: This shows Puccini's family tree: One of Puccini's famous operas is Turandot. This is a very famous costume from the opera: Lucca has walls surrounding the older part of the city. The walls were built during the middle ages. We did what a lot of the people of Lucca do and took about a 2.7 mile walk along these walls. The weather was so gorgeous and we wouldn't have missed the views we had along the walk: From the walk, we could get a distant shot of the Apennine Mo

When we arrived in Lucca, we couldn't immediately go to our AirBnB, so we walked around the city. Here are some of our views: Lucca is just such a beautiful city. Below is the main cathedral (duomo) in Lucca, Duomo di San Martino: Another plaque commemorating a Papal visit: We went on a guided walking tour with Vittoria, who was wonderful.  The city was known for silk production, but now is known for paper. There are interesting paper sculptures through the city like the one below: In the pic below, you can see how the city developed by various building materials and methods: Below is Torre di Guingi. There are trees planted on top to ensure the tower was the tallest in the city:   We went to a concert of Puccini arias at Chiesa (Church) di San Giovanni and ate dinner at the Anfiteatro, the site of the original Roman amphitheater in Lucca. The Anifteatro has lot of shops & restaurants facing in towards the center. It was a fun way to end the evening.