Strolling around Lucca, a Gem of Tuscany, Lucca, Italy

I’ve always loved what’s far away and different and looks adventurous. I can’t stop arranging for overseas trips and new challenges, but because of my parents’ work before and my own now, I’m stuck in the Cinque Terre area for several months a year and I can only move around it to visit the surroundings. Among these short distance daily trips Lucca has always had a special place in my heart and I can not stay away from her, yeah, to me it’s a Lady (!), for too long.

Lucca is like a candy box or a sort of tiny wedding favor Italian people use to offer their guests as a souvenir, but a very cool one, not one of those what-am-I-supposed-to-do-with-this-weird-sad-souvenir one! So, to me Lucca is like a small jewel perfectly enclosed inside of his chest: the kilometric city walls that surrounds it and still protects it from the outside world and somehow from reality.

It is from these walls that usually begin my afternoons in the city. Once passed the Door of San Pietro I reach the walls and, as in Maria Luisa of Bourbon’s plans, I start walking along this beautiful upper boulevard that separates the regular daily life and the beauty of the old town, with its churches dotted with colorful marbles, the swarm of workshops and traditional restaurants, its gardens and its towers that as a kid I could not wait to climb. Along the wall you can meet the human species as a whole … people like me who wanders aimlessly taking pictures and looking a bit lost, runners and sporty men and women, fancy ladies walking their dogs, people loudly chatting, on their mobiles, lovers … in short, on the walls of Lucca there’s a whole world. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).