Day Trip to Lucca and Pisa

8/13/2013

On my first day trip out of Florence I decided to visit the cities of Pisa and Lucca. I had heard that both places were relatively small and easy to explore, so they could be done in the same day, Lucca in the morning, and Pisa in the late afternoon after the buses depart. I had actually never heard of Lucca before, but was told that it was a beautiful medieval town with a Renaissance-era wall surrounding it that you could walk around. Lucca was only an hour train ride North of Florence, so I decided to catch a 9:30AM train and get an early start on the day. Good thing I did, because I ended up missing the stop, which was poorly signed, and ended up in the next town about 20 minutes away. Also, the next train back to Lucca didn't leave for another hour, so I was stuck at that station for a while and didn't actually get to Lucca until about 12:30. Once I did get there however the city did not disappoint. It was pretty quiet since it was a Sunday, and also midday (siesta time!), but it was really quaint, and very much like taking a step back in time. The homes and buildings were all stone with orange, tiled roofs. The Duomo was as beautiful as any other I had seen, though to be honest, I am getting a little tired of looking at churches, so with a quick look I moved on. The main piazza, which I cant now remember the name of, was full of life, and a welcomed contradiction to the rest of the city which was quite dead. The highlight was definitely my climb to the top of Torre Guinigi, which is I think the highest tower in the city. It has trees growing at the top of it and offers the best view over the rooftops of the entire city. On my way back to the train station I walked along the walls of the city, still very much intact and it great condition.

The wall surrounding Lucca

Torre Guinigi

View of Lucca from the tower

The 1\2 hour train ride from Lucca to Pisa was much less eventful. From the map it looked as if the Leaning Tower was a fair distance from the station, but in the end it was not such a bad walk. I was told by many people ahead of my trip that Pisa did not have much to offer aside from the tower, but I didn't find that to be true at all. The main street leading through the town and towards the tower was full of old buildings, churches, and beautiful arches. The tower may have been a little far, but there was plenty to keep the senses busy on the way so that it didn't seem so bad. When I reached the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa it was just as spectacular as I imagined looming in the distance. As I got closer it just became even more surreal. It was around 5PM when I got there and it was still packed with tourists, all posing in the strangest ways imaginable when you looked at them outside of the frame of the tower. I'm sure their pictures looked really good in the end, but I just couldn't bring myself to do the old 'holding up the tower' pose, so I just had someone take my picture in front of it and then did my own less goofy looking version (see the pic below). I know some people may find this lame, but I guess I'm just a shy, and I was never one to follow the crowd anyway, I prefer to do my own thing :) On my way back to the train station I tried to stay off of the main road and ended up finding a few other really beautiful buildings. I should know by this point never to listen to the naysayers, Pisa had plenty of charm to offer. I only spent about 2.5 hours there, but I could have explored longer if it hadn't been getting late. I did however make time for some delicious gelato (Ive basically had a gelato a day since arriving in Italy, and this was one of the best ones to date). The place is right to the left after you cross the bridge into the old town on your way to the Tower. Also, in that same area I found an amazing street band playing that just blew me away. I only captured a small bit of one of their songs because my phone was dying, but Ive included it below. The band included a drummer on some sort of box, a violin, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, flute and clarinet, and they made really beautiful sound. Sitting and enjoying my gelato and the fine music was the perfect end to the day. Now, time to get back to Florence.