Our Roads led to Rome

We are in Rome now, on our second last day in Italy.

We left the villa on New Years Day.  After a longish trip, we arrived in Lucca, where we would stay for three nights.  This is a very old city, with the old walls still intact.  Our hotel was inside the city walls.  This is a city that once boasted 100 churches, and there are signs of them everywhere, although only a handful are still in regular use. Lots of narrow streets and opportunities to get lost!

Quite a few squares here too, including one that is the site of the old Roman amphitheater.  Ok, so it’s more round than a square, but you get the idea. They built houses in the spaces where the old walls used to be and there are now only very few signs of the Roman construction. You can see part of the original wall in this photo.

One of Lucca’s famous sons was the composer Giacomo Puccini.  This photo shows his statue and birthplace (the red brick house).

The next day, we travelled to Pisa.  This was another “pinch me” moment, realising that we were really seeing this most famous landmark in the flesh, as it were.  The whole site is beautiful, and I didn’t realise that the famous tower is just part of a larger series of buildings including the cathedral and baptistry.

Lots of people were trying to get the shot of themselves holding up the tower.  Our guide told us we were free to make fools of ourselves too, if we wanted to.  Leaving Pisa, we drove into the Tuscan countryside and visited a winery and olive farm for lunch.  Lots of good food and plenty of wine to taste left us with a sleepy drive back to Lucca.

The next day was a big one, with a full day in Florence.  We started with a visit to the Accademia Gallery, where we saw my statue. What made the art in this statue more amazing was a number of unfinished works that are displayed close by.  Apparently, Michelangelo was unlike other sculptors, in that he started from the front of the block of marble and worked through it, rather than all around as others did.  The size, detail and finish of this work were incredible, particularly knowing now that it had been outside for 300 years before being moved to the gallery.

We continued on the walking tour and saw the huge cathedral and surrounding buildings.  It is so big, it’s hard to get it into perspective let alone a photo.  It’s clad in multi-coloured marble.  

After this, we stopped for lunch and a rest. Our guide told us about a tradition in the city of a tripe sandwich which had been made there for centuries.  Carole tried it and enjoyed it - I settled for some deep-fried olives.

This is the town hall, which was taken over and used as their residence by the Medici family when they ruled the area.

After lunch we had free time before leaving late afternoon.  We stopped at a lookout on the way to see the whole city.

Our tour guide, who is a local from northern Italy has been fantastic.  On one of our free nights in Lucca, he organised for us to attend a performance of Puccini and Verdi arias in one of the old churches and then a pizza party afterwards.  We paid,of course, but it was an extra effort that was appreciated.

We left Lucca yesterday.  On our way to Rome, we visited San Gimignano, a beautiful walled city high in the Tuscan hills.  We loved this place, with its old buildings and towers. 

We were also given a gelato from a world champion gelato maker, very tasty including one variety that had the taste of the local white wine. This followed a coffee and chocolate torte, so the healthy options were definitely off!

We arrived in Rome yesterday afternoon late, had a farewell dinner with our group and are now planning two relaxing days here.  We fly out on Tuesday morning.