TJ's Travels: Livin' in Lucca

With no real itinerary for Italy except knowing we had a flight out of Venice five days after Stu's arrival, we decided to head to the coast of Tuscany for some good wine, azure ocean waters and copious amounts of pasta, pizza and gelato. We decided to head to Lucca, a small city founded as a Roman colony in the second century BC. Just north of Pisa, we were so fortunate to stumble upon this hidden gem of a stop. We arrived by a five hour train ride from Rome, checked into a small B & B overlooking the station and headed right into the town for a festival going on that night.

Tuscan sunset from our B & B...

I should say that compared to Scandanavia where city streets are ultra clean, public transportation runs on time to the second and prices unbelievably expensive, Italy feels a world away. When we arrived to the festival we saw what we thought were Christmas lights hung from all the towns buildings and laughed to see city employees still getting them ready as the crowds began to fill the plaza. Oh, typical Mediterranean slowness - turns out the joke was on us as each light was an individually lit candle! Incredible!

The candles illuminated most every window in town as a procession of bands, churches and youth groups made there way down the street for a couple hours.

Below, one of many churches in town all lit up...

The next day we took a series of trains an hour and a half over to the coast to visit Cinque Terre, a series of five small towns dotting a beautiful stretch of coast. Connected by a rocky hiking trail and a commuter train, you've undoubtedly seen this area in a commercial on TV.

One of the towns in Cinque Terre. We went for an afternoon swim in the deep azure waters inside the little bay pictured here.

Above and below, a few photos along the way.

On some part of the trail, you are scrambling down a steep embankment and it seems as though you could tumble right into town if you fell.

Below, Stu leads the way along Cinque Terre's vineyard lined trail.

Hard to believe that before tourism arrived here, these were just a series of extremely impoverished towns, isolated from commerce due to difficult access. Nowadays, the streets are flooded with tourists, though the trails are relatively empty as the steep climbs and falls make most opt for the train.

We didn't realize the five miles or so between two towns wouldn't be our only hike of the day as we decided to take a train down the coast to hang out in a little town known for plush resorts, luxury shopping and sandy beaches. We got off the train and walked for at least an hour before arriving to the beach for a sunset swim (Google Earth made it all look so close!) and dinner at an overpriced cafe. We felt pretty out of place towel-changing roadside as rich Italians strolled by in preppy pastel sweaters en route to a Rolex store or Gucci retailer...

We had saved the final morning in Tuscany to explore Lucca. The town was an old Roman fort and is completely encircled by a 20 foot tall by 30 foot thick brick wall, which has now been repurposed as a bike path that rings the city. On our rented bikes, we cruised around checking out the many piazzas, disproportionately high number of beautiful churches and eating street food. Lucca is really off the beaten path but we both agreed we'd recommend it to anybody looking to escape it's more famous and crowded neighbor to the south, Pisa.