As I write this the bells are ringing from the belltowers of Lucca... I'm not sure what the occasion is since it's 5:18 and yet they keep ringing and ringing. Perhaps they're calling people for mass...
Which reminds me, today we climbed two of the many towers of Lucca. The first tower was the Torre Delle Ore bell tower, quite possibly the tallest tower in Lucca. This tower has a hand wound Swiss built clock that has rang the bells every 15 minutes since the 1700's. I'm not sure how old the tower itself is. We were able to see the working mechanism & stand under the bells as they rang, and the view overlooking the city was awesome!
Next we headed over to the other (and probably most famous) tower of Lucca -- the Torre Guinigi tower which has a forrest of oak trees growing out of its top. This tower was somewhere around 600 years old and wasn't quite as tall as the previous one, but the views were equally as spectacular.
Then we wandered back to our neighborhood, found a little grocery store and purchased some picnic food. Then we went around the corner and rented some bikes to ride around on top of the old fortress wall. It has since been turned into a park with huge trees lining the paved pathway. The old bastions have now been turned into green grassy areas great for picnicking, which is what we used one of them for. There we enjoyed our loaf of bread, soft cheese, orange juice and apples. After our picnic lunch we continued the trip around the 2.5 mile rampart while the clouds teased us with sprinkles of raindrops.
Here in Italy everything pretty much shuts down from 3:00 - 7:00 in the afternoon/evenings, so after returning the bikes we came back to our room for an afternoon siesta. The noise of cars, mopeds & pedestrians on the street below wafting in through the open windows. So now we wait for the restaurants to open so we can go eat supper, "
on this, the day of our wedding". Happy 3rd Anniversary, Us!
The above panoramic picture was taken inside a
small round piazza inside Lucca which was originally built upon the grounds of an ancient roman amphitheater. You can still see the remains of old roman arches in the current walls.
