April 2007 - Lucca, Italy - The Perfect Medieval City

After spending Easter morning in Pisa, we headed to the neighboring city of Lucca for lunch and a stroll through one of the most perfectly preserved medieval cities in Italy. The most striking and immediately noticeably characteristic of the city is the monstrous wall that to this day completely encircles it. Here's Casandra and the rest of our group heading towards one of the gates of the wall through which you can enter the city. Behind the trees in the distance, you can see the bell tower of the city's Duomo. Lucca's medieval bell tower attached to the Duomo shown below is quite striking with it's white top visible from any part of the city. It's no wonder this tower is the symbol for this amazingly preserved city.

Here is Casandra with our classmates exiting the Duomo. They are dizzy with information. Boy can Rafaello talk!!! And we're off to another church . . .

This church also showing Lucca's characteristic late medieval Romanesque architecture is completely covered in white marble and so bright it's hard to look at.

The streets of Lucca are incredibly colorful and winding. This is one of the best small towns to stroll through that we have visited.

A great spot for an afternoon caffe is the Piazza Amfiteatro built over a Roman amphitheatre and preserving its original elliptical shape.

We were completely enchanted by Lucca and plan to return just to stroll around the top of the city's medieval wall which has been converted into a park where locals seem to do just about everything including strolling, jogging, eating, singing, hanging out and smooching (our favorite).