Wanderlust

Roman Holiday: Wonderful 2 week Italy itinerary

Here is our itinerary:

Day 0 minus 1: May 23rd. Seattle to Frankfurt. Frankfurt to Roma.

Day 0: May 24th. Land at Leanardo da Vinci, stay at Eurostar, visited Trevi Fountain

Day 1: Rome: Colosseum,  Roman Forum and Palentine Hill,  Pantheon, Piazza Navona.

Day 2: Vatican: Musei Vaticani (Vatican museum), Piazza de San Pietro, Dome of San Pietro’s Church (Michelangelo’s dome), Vatican Chapel . Drive towards Volterra. Stay at Fattoria Lisceto

Day 3: Volterra

Day 4: Sienna: Piazza Il Campo, Duomo exteriors, Piccolomini’s altar, Piccolomini’s library, Bernini’s chapel, Torre del Mangia 

Day 5: San Gimignano. Drive toward Lucca. Stay at La Magnolia.

Day 6: Lucca: Piazza Anfitheatro, Guinigi Tower, Fortress Walls

Day 7: Pisa. Leaning tower of Pisa. Drive towards Cinque Terre. Stay at Luciano 3 in Rio Maggiore

Day 8: Cinque Terre

Day 9: Drive towards Chianti. Stay in Mulino della Abate in Sambucca

Day 10: Florence Uffizzi. Piaza della Signoria.

Day 11: Open day in Chianti.

Day 12: Florence. Academia. Duomo. Giotto’s Tower. Baptistery.

Day 13: Open day. Drive to Rome.

Day 14: Roma to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Seattle.

May 30th: Guinigi Tower, Lucca

Through the morning, this tower had been playing hide and seek with me. My peripheral vision kept catching the tower peeking down from roof level, like a naughty child hiding in the loft.

Towers are part of Italy’s repertoire. We had barely been able to contain the urge to climb every other. The toss up in Lucca was between Torre Guinigi ( pronounced Joo-nee-jee) and Torre dell’Ore.

Climb the beautiful one or climb the other and shoot the beautiful one?

Rhea made that call easy by plummeting me on my back as I tried to sneak past. (She has been watching the tree topped tower for hours as well. Plus, her young legs had been sitting in the little pillion far too long. Almost 15 contiguous minutes).

So we pulled over, leaned our bikes against ancient walls, secured them with a chain, bought three-euro-and-change tickets and took the stairs. 

The walls of the stairwell were covered with murals that told a sordid tale of bloodshed, war and mayhem of a bygone era.  Sadly, no plaques, no translations.

 

Try as I could, I could not get any material on them. The murals seemed pre-renaissance (or were painted in that style) given the absence of perspective and foreshortening.

Paolo Guinigi, the sole Lord of Lucca in 1400, owner of Palazzo Guinigi wanted a tower as tall as it could get. Yet, the local regulations prevented one because of the rising water table under Lucca. He solved the problem by planting oak trees that gave the tower an additional 30 feet.

The view is absolutely stunning. Lucca. the living 100 year old museum looks even more sedate. Un-touristy. Like most tower climbs in Italy, this one was worth every step.

May 30th: Piazza Anfitheatro in Lucca

Most cities in Italy nowadays allow limited cars in the city center. The cars belong to the residents and people on government duty. This primarily keeps the tourist traffic out and hopefully increases the life of the ancient cobbled streets. The apartment lent us their bicycles. We set out, with Rhea riding pillion.

Since San Gimignano, we had learnt to keep the itinerary light. We were saving all the art for Florence. We let the roads lead us. Whenever we came to a fork - an explosion of alleyways - we always turned into the one less crowded stopping only now and then to figure out where we were. Lucca presents a rare and precious example of an almost intact historic city center. It remains mostly Roman-medieval with the buildings of the recent 17th,

18th century  managing not to upset the overall character and the balance of the city.

The day trippers, pouring in from Florence, Siena, Cartona,  started to buzz in around 11:00 AM, substantially changing the atmosphere.

It was time to find a a table in a Piazza and order some nice wine.

If you are having only one lunch in Lucca, it has to be in Piazza de Anfitheatro.

This is the  site of a 1st and 2nd century amphitheatre. Almost nothing of the amphitheatre above the ground survives other than the arc on the east (seen here on the right).  The crammed buildings, like a crowd converging on a street magician, is a result of a overhaul of the Piazza were rebuilt in 1830. 

The intact subterranean structures – basements and drainage – mostly in good shape were used as the foundation.

The effect is spectacular and harmonious. The delicious lunch is incidental.

Wanting a different angle to shoot, I asked several shopkeepers if there was a way to reach the terrace.

If they understood my by now broken English, they did not show any signs of comprehension.