Lucca

Yesterday we went on a day trip to Lucca. I usually don’t post blogs about our day trips, but Lucca was just so great I wanted to tell everyone about it. It was by far my favorite place in Italy. It is located between Pisa and Florence, so it is between Liguria (the region Genoa is in) and Tuscany. It was a medieval town with a wall built around it, and the whole town is surrounded by mountains. Now the wall has been converted into a pedestrian promenade so there are lots of bikers, joggers, and tourists walking around on top of the wall (which is really wide). The wall has grassy fields all along it, so it’s really pretty when you're walking on the wall and can see the medieval houses on one side and the greenery and mountains on the other. Within the wall, all of the buildings are historic and colorful. Lucca had lots of the winding alleys and little piazzas. We spent the morning at the Villa Reale gardens which are a little outside of Lucca. Even though it was supposed to rain, the sun came out, and the day was gorgeous. The gardens had lots of fountains, a waterfall, an artificial lake and big open meadows. I could have stayed and laid out there all day. In Lucca, we mostly just toured the different piazzas in the city. We also went up in Torre Guinigi, where you could look out on the entire city. It was cool, since you could see all of Lucca’s towers and the mountains. If you are ever in Florence, make sure to take a day trip to Lucca!