Blog #15 – A Trip Back in Time in Lucca

This blog is the companion story to the Cinque Terre blog where I mentioned that we changed our plans when driving from Camogli to our Tuscany apartment and stopped in to visit the medieval town of Lucca instead of hiking the Cinque Terre trails in the rain on October 2nd.  As it turned out, when we arrived in Lucca, about 100 Km further on and a little inland from the coast, the day had turned sunny.  We don’t know if the weather turned for the better back on the coast, but such is life.  Lucca was relatively easy to find and parking was simple for a pleasant change, which helped to get our tour of the old town off on the right foot.

The Navigator trying to figure out where we are and where we want to go in Lucca.

Lucca originated as a Roman settlement at the intersection of three roads by the Serchio River.  The town grew to prominence in the middle ages when it rivalled Florence and Pisa as expanding city-states, building churches, great city walls, and monuments and establishing trade and cultural heritage.  It became most famous for its silk production.  The most impressive feature of Lucca is the massive walls that surround the city and are wide enough for a two-lane road.  Many people were strolling, jogging and riding bicycles on the walls when we were there. Lucca managed to maintain its independence mostly through clever diplomacy but also by fighting off attackers and when necessary bribery, until the end of the 18th century when Napoleon overran Italy and took control. 

Lucca as photographed from one of the towers.

After looking around the town and getting a gelato (Italian ice cream), we found the Visitor’s Centre and signed out two audio guides and took a self-guided walking tour.  One of the interesting stories we heard about Lucca was about their intense rivalry with Pisa, which continues to this day.  The rivalry with Pisa was so intense that the following adage arose:  “It's better to have a dead body in your house than a live person from Pisa at your door”. 

Sandy on top of one of the walls of Lucca.

Another interesting story we heard was about a much revered crucifix contained n the Gothic-style San Martino Cathedral.  This large crucifix is referred to as the "Holy Face" because its sculptor was purported to be Nicodemus who assisted Joseph of Aramethia in depositing Jesus in the tomb after his crucifixion.  Nicodemus could not get the image of Jesus’ face out of his mind after this event, so he started to carve the image into the crucifix but grew too tired to complete the task and fell asleep.  When he awoke, the carving of the face had been completed by angels.  The arrival of the Holy Face in Lucca has been dated to the year 742 and it was placed in the Tempietto del Volte Santo (translation: Little Temple of the Holy Face) in 1484, which was built by Matteo Civitali to contain it.  Pilgrims have been coming to this Cathedral ever since to see the Holy Face, so I guess on Oct 2nd we were two more pilgrims visiting Lucca.

The Cathedral in Lucca as photographed from the top of one of the other towers in the town.

We spent close to four hours in Lucca, including the two-hour self-guided tour, which was well worth the time.  The city is also known for its towers, which like many other Tuscan cities were built by the noble families to protect themselves from other rival families within the city.  I climbed the 317 steps up one of the towers to take the landscape shots.  Sandy decided to save her climbing legs for the Tower of Pisa and the Cinque Terra hike and instead chose to go shopping.

Yes those are trees growing from the top of that tower.  I only climbed the one tower from which I took all the high level photos.

Oddly enough, we didn’t find much silk in Lucca considering the city founded its fortunes on this product.  Another story we heard was that silk production used a lot of horse urine since bleach had not been invented until several centuries later.  Much of the production of the silk had to take place outside of the city walls due to the powerful odour of the large volume of urine needed.  The whole city was used in production when they hung out the dyed silks from every window to dry, which made it a very colourful city.  We did find a small tailor’s shop later on in Florence with some beautiful silk that we bought.

It was hard to get a good shot of the Cathedral with all the shadows from the other buildings and the tall bell tower next to it.

This is the oldest building in Lucca, built in the Roman times.  There are holes in the walls near the lions that fed out the chains for the drawbridge.

A panoramic shot taken with Sandy's new fancy camera from the top of one of the towers.