Lucca - part 1

Either the weekend before or the one after (being so far behind with these postings, I can't remember) we went to Fiesole, we headed west to the city of Lucca. I'll talk more about Lucca's history in the next post. Anyway, it's about 50 miles west of Florence, and is on the same train line we used to take to get to the beaches at Viareggio. It is also about 10 miles northeast of Pisa.


Lucca is also in the region of Tuscany, and is the capitol of the Province of Lucca. It is most famous these days for its very intact Renaissance-era city walls. Above you can see the section of the walls that we entered after arriving at the train station.


A view to the right of the massive moat. No attacking army would ever pass this mighty barrier. Actually, the moat is so small that I assume that it was only there to trip up any siege machines.


We were really fortunate in our timing. I think the city is pretty, but not spectacular (compared to some other towns we've seen in Italy). The walls, trees, and the surrounding scenery are what make Lucca so beautiful. But since we went in the Fall, the colors were fantastic. Above is one of the town's towers seen through the trees.


The defenders would have had plenty of open land in front of them when shooting at attacking forces. This shot from the wall shows some of the changing leaves and the mountains. In the third posting you will see better shots of the surrounding views.


More walls and tiny moats.


There were trees growing along the entire length of the walls.


The walls are really wide and there are quite a few parks on top of them at some of the larger areas, like the one above. In fact...


There is even a road that runs along the top of the entire ring of wall. There were so many people out playing in the parks, excercising, walking, and riding bikes-which is what we came to do. It's great. The former city defenses have become a huge city park. The police even drove their cars around up there. If you ever stop by Tuscany in the Fall, I highly recommend going and renting bikes for an hour or two.


Sarah tests some anti-siege weaponry atop the battlements.


Then flees the scene, expertly navigating back towards the path. I wonder what the Renaissance engineers would have thought about the current usage of their defenses. I love it. I think all cities should build huge defenses around them, wait 600 years, then turn them into parks. Brilliant!