Lucca, a walled city

Someone we met on a train told us we shouldn’t miss Lucca so after Pisa, we got back on the train and headed for the walled city.  The walls enclose the old town and are the best preserved Renaissance defense ramparts in Europe.  The first wall (there are three total) is 2,000 years old.  The ramparts are about 60 feet wide and circle 2 1/2 miles around the city.  No cars or scooters are allowed on the ramparts, only pedestrians and bicycles.  The Hotel San Marco where we were staying the night rents the bikes so we climbed on and headed to town.  Oh what fun it was!  We circled the city a few times before heading down into the crowds for dinner.

 

In its heyday, Lucca had 160 of these towers which were the homes of a wealthy merchant family.  There were 70 churches inside the city walls at that time as well.  One of the stories is that this church with St. Michael on top was the most visited as the church council members would climb up stairs on the back of this statue and pull ropes on pully’s to make Michael “fly”, thus ahhhhhhing the townspeople.