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| Our home for the next month |
Our last day
camping was spent in the town of Lucca. Karen
went for a run before we left and found it odd that even though a barrier was
down at a level crossing and the lights were red, cyclists and pedestrians were
still crossing the line.
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| Obstruction on Karen’s morning run |
The main
thing we wanted to do in Lucca was walk around the perimeter on the outer of
the four city walls, the original wall being built over 2,200 years ago. The second wall was built in medieval times and
replaced most of the original wall although parts of the original can still be
found in basements. The third wall was
built in the 14th and 15th centuries as the town had
expanded so much. Finally, the current
outer wall was constructed between 1545 and 1650 and is one of the only
complete city walls left in the world from that period.
On the way
into Lucca there are many examples of farm houses built with ventilation in the
walls of the upper floors where hay was stored above the living quarters
and the ventilation kept it dry. These
walls are protected by law now and cannot be destroyed when the farms are
converted to holiday homes or villas so they are usually lined with glass on
the inside to make for additional accommodation.
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| Two of the converted farmhouses with their preserved haylofts (or fienile) |
Lucca’s outer
walls are just over 4km long and are lined with trees thus making an ideal
circular walk out of the heat of the sun.
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| An avenue on top of the wall along the western side |
The walls
have a large green-belt on the outside which gives a sense of space as it
provides a parkland between the suburbs and the city.
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| Walking along the northern section showing the green space outside the wall |
As is typical
of Italian towns, there are many old churches in Lucca and we passed several on
our walk – Lucca cathedral was built in the 11th
century and many others were built before then.
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| Lucca cathedral |
Circular
brass plaques have recently been placed in the path every 200 metres to
commemorate something to do with the preservation of the walls and are clearly
sponsored by local car companies.
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| The start/finish plaque |
We
were soon doing plaque spotting in line with canal milestone spotting and found
many plaques must have been stolen as we only found about ten in situ.
The skies
darkened about half way around and all the tourists, including us, sheltered
under the trees whilst it rained for about 20 minutes.
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| Sheltering from the rain |
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| One of the large villas and gardens open to the public |
When we
completed our circuit, we walked into the centre. The rain had stopped and the tourists were
back on the streets and in the piazzas.
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| Even with the sun out, the streets remain in shade as they are so narrow |
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| Drying out in piazza San Michele |
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| Clouds have rolled away |
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| The intricate façade of the 11th century San Michele in Foro church |
We spent the rest of our
last day camping reading and going for the odd quick butterfly spotting
forays. We both agreed that this
particular site was one of the best, if not the best, of the ten we have stayed
at over the last three weeks.
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| Relaxing in the evening sun |
There was a bit of excitement during the evening as we heard some commotion and saw a guy who looked like he had had too much to drink and had fallen trying to get into his camper. It transpired that, even though (or maybe because) he had been drinking, he had decided to do some night maintenance under the van.
We packed up on Wednesday
morning and set off for Seggiano where we have rented a cottage for the next month. Seggiano is in
southern Tuscany and about 40 miles east of Grosseto which itself is about 15
miles inland from the Mediterranean coast.
As with our journeys
through France we kept away from the motorways and followed country roads
inland, away from the Italian Riviera.
As usual, the pictures cannot do the scenery justice but here are a few
from the journey:
By mid afternoon we could
see Seggiano, a hilltop town like so many in Tuscany and had the task of
finding the house.
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| Heading for Seggiano |
We used Google maps to get
us there and after travelling about a mile up an unmade road, realised that we
were in the wrong place. An Italian woman
came out of a farmhouse to find out what we were doing in her road. Her English was as non-existent as our
Italian and all she could do was point back up the track and say,
‘Seggiano’.
A young couple pulled up
behind us in a car and the guy got out to find out what was going on and turned
out to speak a little English. He was an
odd-job man who had arrived up to do some work for the lady. It also turned out that he knew Luca, the guy we
were renting the cottage from, and therefore knew how to give us the correct
directions. We were about six miles the
wrong side of Seggiano – so much for Google maps!
We finally found the place
and settled in. We hadn’t realised just
how high up in the mountains we were – at around 900 metres it was just short
of the height of Snowdon. Of course, being
higher, the air was cooler but still pleasant enough to be outside in the
evening in shorts and tee-shirts.
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| Our new home |
It was unbelievably quiet
and felt even quieter than when we are out in the countryside at home on the
boat as there was no sound of water fowl.
Once again, it was
difficult to get a decent picture but we just caught the sun setting over the
furthest mountains as we sat outside in the fading daylight - it was pitch
black by eight o’clock.
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| Our view from the front in the setting sun - hopefully we'll get clearer pictures over the next few weeks |
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| Our journey for the last month |
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