Lucca, September 22

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 Mountains:




During the day, Gary was even bold enough to get a straight razor haircut and shave from a local barbiere. He thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Chiara and Michael (the barbieri) were wonderful.

We ended the day with a nice meal at the Ampitheater. Unfortunately, we missed out on one thing. There was an entire street set up with artisan chocolate vendors. One vendor actually had edible chocolate shot glasses and dozens of liqueurs to fill the chocolate glasses. By the time we were going back to the street for dessert, the vendors were closing for the night. Next time, we will know, Lucca!

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