After the craziness of the Palio, a trip to Lucca was the ideal way to spend the day. Ana Rose and I took the 9:18am train on Saturday and arrived in Lucca a little after noon. When we were in line buying our train tickets, we happened to see a very nice girl from England name Angelique, whom we’d met at a pre-Palio party on Thursday. She was taking the train to the airport to return to England, so it was a very nice surprise to sit with her on the journey and exchange emails. Siena constantly surprises me with these happenstance meetings!
Lucca was a quiet town, not filled with tourists in the least – a nice change from Siena’s Palio crowds this past week! We first meandered from the train station to inside the city walls (Lucca is a medieval town like Siena) and arrived first at Lucca’s Cathedral, San Martino. The architecture from the outside was impressive, including the sculptures on the outside of its entrance. Inside the church was not as notable as its exterior, especially after touring Siena’s Duomo. However, it did have a tomb/statue of Ilaria del Carretto by Jacopo della Quercia (the sculptor of Siena’s Fonte Gaia in Piazza del Campo). Ilaria was the wife of one of Lucca’s rulers, and the statue is coined “Sleeping Beauty” because she is portrayed so beautifully. Her nose is now worn away after many, many years of single females rubbing it for good fortune of finding a husband.
Lucca’s orientation is similar to Siena’s but on a much smaller scale. It has the medieval cobblestone streets that wind and weave without a pattern, and colorful, old European buildings line the streets. After the cathedral, we stopped at Pizzeria da Felice to have cecina for lunch. Cecina is a Luccan specialty, basically a garbanzo bean (chickpea) crepe that came hot out of the oven. It was very tasty! Afterwards, we walked the streets, trying to find the Roman amphitheater we’d read about. We finally realized that what is now Lucca’s main piazza was once an amphitheater – a little bit of a disappointment but quite funny once we realized the meaning behind the piazza’s name: Piazza Anfiteatro. The piazza is a medium sized circle, again resembling Siena’s Piazza but not nearly the same scale or popularity. Instead, it is a quaint piazza surrounded by little shops, restaurants, and gelaterias. The arches leading into the piazza are the skeletons of the amphitheater.
The next part of the afternoon was by far my favorite part of the day. Although it was almost 100 degrees outside, we decided to rent bikes for an hour. Our Rick Steve’s guide said that a bike ride around the city walls was the perfect way to tour the city and see it from a beautiful perspective – and this was very true! Thankfully, a light breeze picked up as we started our bike ride, making it quite pleasant. There really is no way to adequately depict the scenery. The city walls are 2.5 miles around, offering an amazing view down to Lucca’s center. In the background were rows of mountains, appearing a deep blue color. We biked past old ruins, green parks with blooming flowers, and tree-lined streets. I was euphoric on our couple loops around the town, thoroughly enjoying the beauty and the wind against my face. We biked once around to take in everything then circled back to stop for pictures. I would love to return to Lucca some day for a relaxing weekend of exploring its running trails and picnicking in its parks. Although it was Saturday, there was hardly anyone in the city, and it felt like Ana Rose and I were exploring Lucca all to ourselves. Afterwards, we definitely needed a gelato-fix, and we enjoyed a very cool treat for the hot day as we made our way back to the train station. On the trip back, we met four American girls studying abroad in Rome, and we got so caught up talking to them that we almost missed our stop in Empoli… thankfully, I looked up in time to see the “Empoli” sign outside and Ana Rose and I ran off the bus, waving to the girls from the platform! We arrived back in Siena around 7:30pm, met Stella’s friend Marco, who is originally from South Africa but lives in Siena now, and had dinner – Stella’s panzanella (bread salad) and carpaccio, with fruit salad for dessert. That evening, we met up with the other CET students and took in the views from Piazza del Campo, still extremely busy from the Palio. The Selva contrada continues to celebrate its Palio win, parading through the Piazza with their drums and flags. They were all dressed in Selva’s colors (orange and green) and sucking on pacifiers or baby bottles, symbolizing their rebirth. Since Selva has won the Palio three times in the past few years, the Sienese people are very tired of them! We, however, find all of the festivities very exciting!
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