Days 53 to 55, 31st May – 2nd June Bologna to Lucca and 3 nights in Lucca

 Day, 53 - 31st of May

The last day of May already! We were up early, showered and already to go, checked out of the hotel and said thank you to the staff who have been great. We booked this hotel with Qantas points, so only the local taxes to pay which you have to pay in every town in Europe if you are a foreigner.

We went out and waited for our ride– They were about 15 minutes late, so we’re glad to see they had arrived and hadn’t stood us up. They had a different car, which was slightly bigger, and even though they were travelling for a month, their cases weren’t too big. Fred and and I lovely – and Fred, unpacked and repacked the car and got everything in with just a big soft case between us in the back seat. We have plenty of room and off we went! How lovely to sit in the back and not have to worry about any of the details – there were so many viaducts and tunnels along the way, plus lots of toll gates. We talked all the way – some gets lost in translation, But on the whole, we had a clear understanding, and their English was pretty good! Made good time and arrived in Lucca Just after lunchtime. They actually drove us right into the old town so we only had a half a kilometre walk with our cases in the old town. We are no cars can go. We paid them xtra as they have been so good and we said our goodbyes – they were going to park the car outside and go and find a sign was the name of the town, as that is their son’s name as well!

Just after lunchtime. They actually drove us right into the old town so we only had a half a kilometre walk with our cases in the old town. We are no cars can go. We paid them xtra as they have been so good and we said our goodbyes – they were going to park the car outside and go and find a sign was the name of the town, as that is their son’s name as well!

We used to Maps.me and found our accommodation, no problems. I had sent a text to the B&B where we are staying to let them know the time we were coming and luckily I did as they have a huge old front door that is always locked and they aren’t manned all the time, so glad I had data and could send them notice. Deborah who runs La Boheme is such a lovely bubbly person and arrived right as we appeared with our suitcases. We only had to carry our suitcases up a couple of flights of stairs – glad we have got rid of the duffel bag weight! We got checked in and down to our room – I had picked a room called Madame butterfly – they are all themed off Puccinis operas as he has was born here, they are very fond of him. Our room is all emerald green with a 4 poster bed, very quaint.

We chucked our bags in the room and then out walking around this amazing town – I think they call it the city of 100 churches. It is mostly all pedestrian and is so old you can’t help but just marvel at the architecture. I think a lot of people come in here just for the day and then leave as it got much quieter later on in the evening. We went for a walk just around the corner from our accommodation and saw a fresh sandwich shop, so got a ham cheese and tomato panini. Their cheese is the real mc coy here! Got a call from Danni – glad I have data now I have the Italian phone number :-). Had a good talk with her as she had just landed in Hong Kong with a call-in for cabin crew in Sydney. She got to be a passenger on the way over, have the night and most of the next day to explore and then flying back on an overnight flight. It all sounded very exciting. We sat in the square for awhile and people watched – the Italians are very fashionable, the tourists like us are not so! Ha ha.😂

Back to our room and got changed, then went for another wander and decided to grab dinner in one of the local squares. It’s funny they have all the St John’s ambulances parked outside, in the square?? Just doesn’t quite fit with a very old town where you could be walking around in the 1500s for all your knew! 

Had dinner, but it wasn’t very nice – my meal was almost completely cold and Graeme’s was not much better, so that was not so good, and we won’t go to that one again. There are so many choices. Went for another wander around in the twilight, We went into a couple of churches – one had his holiness, somebody or other lying in a glass casket, with a bony hand, waving in the air! Me thinks he was some hundreds of years old by the look of his face, and not what I would choose to do once I had passed on ha ha! The paintings and frescoes were stunning in this church though, and they were also crypts in the floor.

Back home and into bed as we were pretty tired. We are starting to feel it with carrying bags everywhere and moving on every couple of days – walking tens of thousands of steps. Not feeling quite as young as we were five years ago!

 

     

Day 54- 1 June, Lucca

We got up today – nice not to have to rush and we could just wake up and get ready in your own time. I woke with a pretty sore neck as our bed is quite hard, and it was hot, which never helps my neck and hip pain. We decided to get up on the wall that goes around the city hoping it would have a bit of a breeze, it is one of the few remaining cities with walls and is so wide. You could actually drive a car on it! They’ve kept it as a green space, so we started walking, but it was very hot in the sun so we diverted and went down to a bicycle rental place just off the rampart. We decided to get a buggy that was kind of like a golf cart and is electric so you did have to pedal, but it also had a bit of torque when you weren’t peddling (although it wasn’t quite right, so you really did have to pedal all the time). Not bad, I guess for €22, but that was for an hour, well it was cheaper than the one before it. Saved our bacon in the heat anyway as it had a roof over it!

We moseyed around the wall and then we wandered back down into the middle of town and got a giant cold. moretti beer each and a lovely big salad. Then we walked and walked and walked again – that we did over 15,000 steps again today. I have taken more photos of pigeons for dad today as we per the family joke about him taking photos of grey birds on grey days, sitting on grey walls! But the pigeons have pretty colours on their backs here, which I thought they would appreciate ha ha.

We went to the supermarket because I was trying to find some hair dye to even up my regrowth and the blonde that is going quite brassy after so many weeks away, but they didn’t have any so went to a chemist – the pharmacies here are very old fashioned and look like the apothecaries of years gone by. It can be a little hard with the language barrier, but the lady got me some hair dye except they didn’t have any light brown, so I ended up with dark brown. Will try that one tomorrow morning and see how it goes. 

We went back to our room and relaxed, although I was also looking to see how we could get a ride on the 3rd June to get from Lucca to San Gimignano, as it’s not easy. There are buses but they are local and not always very reliable, plus it will take 4+ hours so Debora who owns the accommodation where we are staying is having a look at bla bla car ride share that we used before, but I can see there are no rides going that way online. Our only other alternative is to get a taxi which is about 1 1/2 hours and probably about €200. Although that sounds a lot, it is what it would’ve cost us to hire a car one way and leave it in a different place.

Debora has also given us reduced price tickets to the ipera here. They usually €30, but she gave us tickets for €25 per person. Because Puccini was born here they are incredibly proud of him and they have an opera every single night of the year – actually I think they have 380 concerts a year without repeating the music 🫨. There are 60 professional opera singers who rotate plus 4 pianists, so it is a big deal and is held in a beautiful high ceilinged church.

We went out and had a lovely wine and an aperol with lemon soda before the concert then went along to that at 7pm, and even if you aren’t into opera, the singing in the church is so beautiful. There were two opera singers – the younger singer had the most beautiful voice. They both sang at the end and only hit about four notes that would’ve broken a glass! You actually got goosebumps with some of the songs as you could tell they were telling a heartrending story. Puccini was very interesting as he had not been good at school and coming from five generations of opera related family members, his father was a composer – they were disappointed that he didn’t do well and had no interest in music. His mother got him a music tutor and he began to improve, but it wasn’t until he was 18, when he walked 20 miles with his brother to Pisa to hear Verdi I think it was, that he began a passion for composing music. He also had some interesting times in his life due to his infidelity which got him into some trouble apparently. He then developed lung cancer at 65 due to his heavy smoking of cigarettes and cigars, and went to Paris for some experimental radiation therapy. However he died 7 days later as he had some bleeding and was too weak to recover. But the town of Lucca has remained incredibly proud of him and his ability to write such famous operas (In fact, the B&B we are staying in is called La Boheme, and our room is Madame butterfly!).

We went out afterwards – had umbrellas as it has started to rain. We wandered through the streets, while big fat raindrops dropped down on us, then stopped and bought a slice of pizza and a bottle of beer each and took that back to her room to enjoy! You can buy beer anywhere and it wasn’t even expensive.

  

                          

We have the beer and the pizza slices!

Day, 55, 2nd June –Last day in Lucca

Woke around 6:30am as I have been most days, waited a little while for Graeme to wake up then was catching up on fb when Danni rang to have a chat. She was doing well as has been awake for 22 hours after flying back from Hong Kong and only had about 3 hours sleep. Sounds like it was extremely hot and humid while she was there but really enjoyable and quite cheap.

We went and had breakfast after, then back to the room and I dyed my hair – holy cow it is very very dark for dark brown, but will wash out and at least my regrowth has gone! We’ve got ourselves sorted and went out walking again. Today is a public holiday so lots and lots of people out and about and also many tour groups coming in from cruise ships. We walked until we found the oval amphitheatre style area in town – it was pretty hot so we tried to stick to the shade. We then came across some beautiful gardens that we had seen yesterday while we were up walking the town wall. They belong to a beautiful home called Palazzo Pfanner, which had a really interesting history. The construction went back to 1660 when the Marconi family who were merchant nobility built it, but were unfortunately ruined by bankruptcy in 1680 and they were forced to sell to the Controni family who were silk merchants, who had risen to nobility. They extended the house and built a grand staircase which still stands today. 

The gardens were developed and then in the middle of the 19th century, the Pfanner family who were local Brewers from Austria, acquired the property and set up their brewery there. The brewery closed in 1929, and the Palazzo is still the property of this family, who then opened it to visitors in 1995 when the restoration work became very expensive. It is a stunning property and well worth the visit for €11 pp– you get to see the gardens and part of the impressive property inside. One of the family was a doctor and there seem to be a lot of gynaecological and amputation instruments on display?!! From a point of midwifery, the forceps and speculums are still very similar to what is used today – unfortunately!

After that, we had to go and stop and have another aperol and lemon soda, because it was so hot and take photos of more pigeons for dad! Then we just wandered a lot of kms around the town before going back to our room to put our feet up for a bit. Then out again and walking – we went back to a beautiful leather merchants where they can make all of their shoes, bags and jackets and I finally decided to buy a jacket I have tried on yesterday that Graeme really loved as well- got them down well in price too, I have never heard a garment where they put it in a cloth bag and tied it up with ribbons before putting it in a pretty fancy carry bag!

Then out walking again and decided to find somewhere nice to have a break under a big umbrella – they are everywhere in the restaurants and cafes and we had a couple of aperols and wines along with a lovely meal. We had the starter of fresh tomato and mozzarella and then pasta - tortellini with cream and bacon, and linguine with egg and bacon, to finish. There was a beautiful little boy in a pram across from us who was very reactive to my smiling and playing peekaboo with him. So innocent and perfect! 

Walked back to our room, and Debora has arranged the taxi for us tomorrow, which will be able to come right inside the walls to pick us up so that would be great – going at 10:30 am to San Gimignano.