30 Maggio – 12 Giugno 2019

We’re not sure why more people don’t make Lucca a destination for long stays. We did. Twelve full days. Lucca is filled with churches, shops, squares, restaurants and trattorias, and gelaterias. Its location gives easy access to Pisa, Cinque Terre, Florence, Viareggio, Carrara marble quarries, and the Garfagnana—all one to 1.5 hours away by car, train, or bus.

Lucca’s defensive wall encloses all of this, making strolls easy and enjoyable. The streets curve, revealing glimpses of shops that finally come into full view or occasional piazzas that open up the street to front a church or a civic building. Many of the churches are now used for academic and civic functions. Music recitals seem to dominate.

Music, Music, Music, and More Music

Lucca is filled with music of all kinds. Elton John will be here next month. So will Sting. But most importantly, Lucca is the home of Puccini. Lucca has long embraced music. But Puccini solidified Lucca’s importance and influence in music worldwide.

This importance has borne schools of music and opera in Lucca. You see students with instrument cases on their backs going to and from school or you hear opera flowing onto the street from open windows as students train their voices.

Puccini performances take place nightly, and we went to one with Bob, Richard, and friends. We heard an impressive Tosca in an open-air plaza while having drinks at a cafe, and we went to Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with a full orchestra, 100-person choir, and four highly accomplished operatic singers. Both performances were free. The conservatory offers free Rassegana Giovani Interpreti (final exam recitals) daily from mid May to mid June. We heard 11 students from the Scuola di Pianoforte play selections including Chopin and Liszt.

It makes for very special memories.

Cattedrale di San Martino

Basilica di St. Frediano

Frediano was an Irish bishop. (Yes, Jim Walsh, you heard right. An Irish bishop.) The Lucchese could not pronounce his real name—Finnegan—so they called him Frediano. He had the church built in the first half of the 6th century. The church underwent major expansions over the years.

St. Michele in Foro

Built over the Roman forum and first mentioned in the late 700s. Pope Alexander II rebuilt this church in 1370 to rival the church built by the archbishop of Lucca. Some sort of pride and power issue was going on with the pope, who wanted to impress pilgrims approaching Rome from the north.

Palazzo Manzi

A few doors down from where we are staying, this palazzo provides a great example of how the upper crust in Lucca lived in the 1600s through 1800s. It holds rooms of tapestries, samples of silks woven in Lucca, and the city art collection that includes works given by the Medici family, including Tintorettos, Ghirlandaios, Bronzinos, and other Renaissance paintings. Well worth a visit and barely mentioned in tourist guides.

Puccini’s Home

Torre Guinigi

This tower was built for show. Wealth that is. Back in the 1300s wealthy families built bell towers to show off their worth. Today, we climb to the top for incredible views of Lucca and beyond. The oak trees on top replaced a culinary garden for the kitchen that was once located the floor below.

This and Thats

Robert’s Colazione

Robert each morning goes to a nearby pasticceria—Pasticceria Da Sara & Co—for his morning cappuccino and dolce (usually a cornetto vuoto). The place seats about 40 with another eight standing at the counter. A family (mother, father, and daughter) run the operation. They take turns at the register, although it seems that the daughter is always the barista and mom is the person in charge of the dolce (pastries).

The shop, mainly with a modern but not too modern look, sits on one of the main streets and as such fills and empties with people on their way to work, school kids getting their last hit of caffeine and sugar before their classes start in 10 minutes, and the local police. Robert has yet to figure out the schedule of classes for the students. They come in waves—some before 8 and others at 10:30.

Workers in the trades filter in and out throughout the morning and stay only a minute or two—enough time to order and down an espresso or macchiato. Customers read the newspapers left folded neatly on a tabletop by a prior customer. The pasticceria gets its share of tourists too. But the mix is heavily in favor of the locals as in many places in Lucca.

The familiar sounds here are of the customers talking to each other, arguing (but not really arguing) about who will pay the bill, the clanking and clinking of cups, saucers, and plates. No need here to worry about chipping because the cups and plates are heavy and thick with a purpose in mind.

Cibo e Bibite

Next stop Roma!