Lucca is our kind of city.  Beautiful walkable, bikeable — did we mention that it has a complete set of city walls?  And the towers — it really is a city of towers, many of them campanile attached to churches but others built for civic or private purposes.  In the evening they rang all the bells in the city for about fifteen minutes, and as one walks about the streets the joyful ringing seems to shift around every corner as the echoes change.  But we get ahead of ourselves…

Our nominal “B&B”, while perfectly delightful and with top-notch hospitality, has actually stopped providing the second “B”, instead directing guests to a cafe two short blocks away.  So we went there and were served an Italian breakfast, complete with cappuccino (our first of the trip, but you can’t leave Italy without trying some, right?)

  
Breakfast finished, we were eager to climb our first of the fabled towers.  The Guinigi family was a leading clan in the Middle Ages and built a number of palaces in Gothic brick.  One includes a soaring tower with a small grove of oak trees at the top -literally, right out of the top of the tower! It is easy to imagine generations of city nobility enjoying this beautiful intimate garden high in the air, with views in all directions.

   
   
Bicycles are everywhere in Lucca, but they have some special options for tourists.  What better way to promote family unity than a bicycle built for four?  Well, technically it’s a quadcycyle, but whatever you call it, it was loads of fun!  We made a full circuit of the walls, with everyone taking a turn steering.

  
Lunch included a local specialty recommended by our host, called “cecina” and made from chickpea flour.  We spent some time exploring Lucca’s many shops before climbing our second tower of the day, home of the city’s clock.  The clock mechanism still keeps time, and the staircase to the top winds around the hanging weights.  The enormous bells at the top did not sound during our visit, but the sound must be tremendous when they do.

   
   
Our tower tickets also included entry to the botanic garden so we went there for a short visit.  They have some grand old trees, including an enormous Lebanon cedar.  After this we split for a while, Nick to explore the city fortifications and the rest for more bike riding (on singles this time).  Lucca residents really take advantage of their walls – it felt as though half the city was out enjoying a stroll, jog, or bike ride in the early evening light.  

 
We dined al fresco again at a cozy, non- pretentious restaurant where we tried a full Italian meal: antipasto, prima platti, and secondi platti (no coffee).  Not sure how the Italians do it – sooo much food!!  Good thing we still had done walking to do…

  
At dinner we heard some sort of commotion and were surprised to see a parade of drummers and others in medieval dress passing by.  We later discovered that the city was holding a festival of sorts, including a contest of crossbow marksmanship in front of the Duomo.  Apparently, Siena has its horse races and Lucca had its crossbows.

  
We milked as much of the day as we could – our last official vacation day before traveling home – eating our last gelato after 11 PM, and collapsed into bed just before midnight, exhausted but delighted with our memorable day in Lucca.