Day Eight - Lucca, City of 100 churches.

Yet another glorious morning greeted us as we arrived in Livorno the gateway to Pisa and Florence. Victoria and Oliver made the trip to visit both cities but once again we had decided on an alternative. Originally we had booked a visit to an Italian farmhouse to see and sample real homemade pasta. We were therefore very disappointed to recieve an e-mail from P&O informing us that it had been cancelled due the family not making pasta on a Sunday. As a substitute we booked a half-day trip to the small town of Lucca, a charming town situated about 14 miles north of Pisa.
They call Lucca the city of a hundred churches as every corner you turn another church or tower comes into view.

Lucca is also famous for being the birthplace of the great composer Giocomo Puccini in 1858, and his residence now houses a small museum. Strangely the museum is located on the second floor of a block of flats the other floors of which seem to be occupied by other families. The visit therefore required a ring on the doorbell to let us in.

Outside the museum is a statue which gives a perfect photo opportunity.

The museum itself contained many artefacts from Puccinni’s life although none of his great works were written here, interesting never the less. After our museum visit we made our way to the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, the Roman amphitheatre. Although this dates back to Lucca’s Roman period, it is today lined with modern shops and cafes.

A short walk away you find the church of San Frediano, a magnificent building with the bell tower behind.

From here we walked to the city walls, now the site of a tree lined garden pathway and bicycle route from where you gain super views of the city roofs and towers beyond. Including the one with a small oak tree wood on top.

Coming down from the walls we continued our walk through the uncrowded streets with fresh views coming at every corner...

…until we reached the cathedral of San Martin.

Unfortunately time had beaten us and we didn’t have time to go inside to view the Tintoretto painting of the Last Supper (Apologies if that is not spelt correctly).
A magnificent trip with the only criticism being we didn’t have enough time to see and do all the things that we wanted. Ah well, we’ll have to come back again!!!!
Tonight as a special treat Poppy and Joseph are having a sleep over in Granny and Grancher’s cabin. They are watching a film as I write this. Tomorrow is a sea day as we make our way back to Spain and the port of Cartagena.