Trips,Travels and Vacations: Time to explore so off to Lucca

John Keir needs more fun on the roads in Italy so he is behind the wheel, I am navigating with car GPS and my familiar Garmin and a printed map, written directions and a full size Michelin map, and off we go. None of that helps us in our half hour search for a parking place after we drive right to Lucca like we knew where we were going. With a u-turn worthy of a native John slips into a spot for a Fiat 500. It requires slithering out the car doors in some postures worthy of circus performer as our Volvo barely makes it in.

This well preserved walled city is popular on the tourist route for it's history and as the center of cashmere and silk production. Quite frankly, I miss calculated and mornings and evenings require something warmer than the cotton sweaters I brought. So two cashmere ponchos joined me on the trip and my credit card groaned. Patti got to celebrate her birthday again with John's credit card and we helped the Italian cashmere industry.

These stairs lead to the top of the wall and a lovely wide promenade all the way around the city.

I have never been sure if this family lives here or if this hung on the busiest touristy piazza in Lucca permantly to add local color. Actually the former because this is still a living city where people live and work. On our last visit we stayed in the city center and in the evening when the tourists leave, the locals come out and stroll and socialize in a passeggiata. This daily part of life is integral to Italian life. For a few hours the streets are the social heart of the community and children play and run, old men swap lies or play cards. Young people flirt and pair off. A seat in a sidewalk cafe is like being in a living theater.

The city walls are in perfect condition for being 800 years old. Used from 2nd century BC to the 16th AD, the bulk of the building was in the 11th and 12th century.

Back on the roads again and the cooks in the backseat are rhapsodic over plans for what they are going to prepare for dinner. That entails another trip to the Esselunga and getting home again is still a challenge. We manage somehow.