Lucca & Pisa

We did end up getting around to some touristing yesterday. We limited our supermarket trip to some non-perishable basics and headed into Lucca for a looka and dinnera. It seems that many Italian words must end in a vowel.

Lucca is the town nearest us, it is a walled city but surprisingly it's fortifications are very similar in style to the ones we rode around in Narden back in the Netherlands. They are a combination of walls and earth ramparts. This weekend Lucca was hosting a medieval festival for which we had a brochure but in Italian. We eventually figured out some of the details and location of activities.

There were many market stalls with traditionals goods and crafts on display as well as a military camp setup outside the walls. It looked like many of the people were genuinely camping the night medieval style.

We enjoyed having a look around but it's hard to take it all in without the advantage of language. Sam had fun at a puzzle and traditional toy stand, we were all perplexed by one puzzle involving a needle and thread. The stallholder looped the needle through a mans button hole and back through the loop of thread. No one could then remove it, the loop wasn't long enough to allow the long needle back through. It was eventually removed but none of us saw how he did it and he wasn't giving the secret away.

Lucca was also the setting for our first Italian meal out, pasta and risotto of course. Very yum. While we were eating a medieval drum band marched past into the round piazza of Lucca (originally the Roman amphitheatre). There were a large group of people also carrying flags, we had seen a couple earlier throwing the flags to each other. The kids followed to investigate and were entertained by a great show by the flag bearers. We had to finish the night with some gelato, I got us slightly lost finding our way back out and we had to walk part the way around the walls avoiding mass joggers and walkers doing a fun run.

Today we headed off to nearby Pisa to see it's famous leaning tower. We were shocked at first when we could see it from a distance as we drove out of the hills. It was leaning the wrong way! Most of the photos you see are taken from the west and we were approaching from the east.

It was so funny watching everyone take there photos holding the tower up, it's quite a sight, a bit like a mass of tai-chai practitioners performing a pose. It didn't take us long to join in though.

The tower itself is quite amazing, apart from the shoddy foundations and leaning. It was built to be the bell tower for the nearby cathedral and it occurred to me after we were looking at it for some time, that it may actually be more unique than I had thought. I really can't remember seeing any other building of it's shape. Most of the towers and belfries we have seen so far have all been square. A tall thin round tower seems quite original, we'll have to keep a look out in the rest of Italy to see if there are any others. I found it quite an attractive building, simple but striking. Curiously it was built over quite a period of time and was to the fourth level when it was discovered to be leaning. This was compensated for in the top levels so not only does the tower lean but is also curved so the top is almost level!

After Pisa we headed to the coast for lunch and to cool off, it's still quite warm here 30+ today. We hadn't brought cossies but Ollie was still determined to go in, he's now swum on both sides of the Mediterranean. The beach area outside Pisa we visited was Tirrenia. The whole strip of beach is fronted by restaurants known as Bagnos which means bath. The beaches are private for clients of the Bagno who rent an umbrella or chair or one of the little change rooms. We sort of ignored the sign and they didn't seem too bothered about enforcing the restricted access.

We had another great gelato experience on the way back to Lucca, Pappa Grappa gelato. It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere but was quite popular. Families were coming in and buying gelato in take home tubs, much nicer selection than supermarket neapolitan.

Tuscany Days 1-2