Eurotrip: Lucca

There’s this little town a short train ride from Pisa called Lucca. I had never heard of this town till Antonio told me it was a cute place to visit. So I decided to sleep in since Antonio said it was a small town and I could see it in a few hours. I was exhausted so it worked out for me. The train tickets to and from Lucca were less then 7 Euros. I ended up spending five hours there and it was so adorable.

So Antonio had told me that Lucca was a walled city and it’s city walls were still intact since they weren’t bombed in World War 2. I was thinking like medieval walls…. Like the ones in Pisa. 

Turns out they’re these bad ass Renaissance Walls. 

To get into the town I walked around this bend

 Through this entrance

Which lead to this stair ramp. 

Across this mini courtyard thingy

Up these stairs

To emerge upon the city walls!!

I don’t know what I was expecting but what I found was really amazing!

The one thing that I found most comforting about Lucca was that it was strongly quiet. There was no car noise or busy people noise. It was just so serene as I walked around the streets wandering around the tiny streets and seeing all there was to see. 

While I was in the visitors centre the guy told me that there was a free museum in the same building as Torre Guingi. It’s the Lucca MUST museum because you must visit it. But actually it’s really called the Memoria urbana Società e Territorio. And what was in this museum you ask? Why a history of Lucca of course! And it was really cool to see. They had a lot of models.

^This is what the city used to be like^

This one was the coolest. You see it’s a model of the soil sublevels and how it’s built up since the roman times. I legit stood in front of this and looked at everything for a decent amount of time. I thought it was sooo cool to thik about it. I mean come on you’re walking on Roman ruins 3.10 meters aka 10 feet below you! And this little set up is a replica of an actual dig site! Even cooler!

I also found out that the terraces around the city could have been flooded for a final line of defence. Lucca just kept getting cooler.

After the MUST museum I wandered around the city.

I took an evening train back to Pisa. I was a little sad thinking about it because it was my last night in Pisa. The next day I would be taking a train to Rome after seeing more of the city. Of course the last night I opened Antonio’s door the first try. I chilled and worked on my journal as I waited for Antonio to get home, he had another football match. 

We went and had pizza that night. And oh my god… it was the best pizza I’ve ever had! And it was really nice to just chill out. And of course after dinner we walked around Pisa again. I think that was my favourite part of staying with Antonio. Unlike my other hosts he didn’t mind just hanging out and talking to me. I’m always insanely curious about people’s lives and I’ve been told I ask a lot of questions. So when we got home I had to say bye since I wouldn’t be seeing him the next day. I felt a bit awkward since I couldn’t really put into words what a nice couch surfing experience it was. Out of my whole trip Pisa was my favourite stop and my host was the nicest and most helpful out of all my hosts. That night I stayed up reading on my nook and just sort of thinking about how my trip was almost at an end… it was depressing. But I still had a few more days before packing off towards home.

Cheers,