The City of 100 Churches and the Holy Face

Lucca is known as the city of 100 churches.  It is said that within the city walls you can find that many but we have even been told that this is an underestimate.  No doubt much of this is modern urban mythology – although in medieval times possibly accurate - and the truth is that there are now probably about 40 churches that you can visit; this is still a pretty impressive number for such a small place.  They span a period of 1000 years, the oldest has its origins in the 600s and the more recent date from the 1600s. 

These churches house a range of treasures.  Not the dark and sterile, stone walled churches that you tend to see back home, here you are faced with paintings and frescoes on walls and pillars that date back to medieval times.  Additionally many of the churches contain important relics: the mummified body of Santa Zita in the Church of San Frediano is one but another very important treasure is the ‘Holy Face’ which can be found in the cathedral.

The Holy Face is a life size wooden crucifix which medieval legend says was sculpted by a Pharisee who helped Joseph of Arimathea deposit the body of Christ in the tomb.  It is said it was found in a cave in the Holy Land by a bishop guided by a revelation and transported to Lucca in 742.  The story of the miraculous journey to Lucca was seen as proof indeed that the rightful place for the Holy Face was in that city: it was taken by a boat without sails or crew to Tuscany; the local townsfolk tried to unload it but it would retreat from their grasp and it was not until a bishop arrived from Lucca that it allowed itself to be retrieved; finally it was loaded on a cart drawn by oxen which took the cargo to Lucca without any guidance or driver. 

Understandably the relic became a destination for medieval pilgrimage and the current Holy Face is an early medieval copy as so much of the original was chipped away by pilgrims.  Such was its importance it was deemed the King of Lucca and appeared on coins minted in the city.  It is also mentioned in Dante’s Inferno and ‘by the Face of Lucca’ was supposedly the customary oath of King William II of Britain.  Each year it would be dressed in gold vestments for a procession through the city, a procession that still takes place today but without the relic. 

18 May - Florence

Today we headed back to Florence to again meet up with Fiona and have her show us more of the city.  Our brief when asked where we wanted to go was ‘anywhere without crowds’.  Arriving at the station reminded us of Cinque Terre with masses of people and tourist groups but we managed to lose them as we headed to some of the less visited sites in the city.  First to the church of Santa Maria Novella from the late 1200s with frescoes and paintings from the 14^th and 15^th century, then a wander through Florence’s central market with stacks of fresh and interesting produce and finally to the Bargello museum.  The latter is meant to be second only to the Uffizi in Florence but unlike the Uffizi you don’t have to order your ticket in advance then spend hours in a queue to collect it and then shuffle around the museum’s corridors behind the huge crowds.  The Bargello is very quiet and houses an eclectic mix of renaissance sculptures by the greats such as Donatello and Michelangelo plus many others we probably should have, but had not, heard of.  We headed to Fiona’s for a nice lunch cooked by Giuseppe which we then walked off in the nearby Boboli gardens in the city, gardens originally set out for the Medici and which offer a slice of peace and tranquility within Florence and great views of the city.

On the walk back from the station to the flat we wandered through the peaceful cathedral piazza where we were unexpectedly ambushed by a couple of Negroni cocktails…

                                          

17 May - Lucca

The morning was one of farewells with Roger and Ali departing for England and then we had some down time in the flat before heading out for a cycle around the city wall to enjoy the day and chill in the sun.  We opted for a quiet night in the flat in order to let our livers recover.

16 May - Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre (The Five Lands) are five old fishing villages that cling to the cliffs along the west coast of Italy, in the region of Liguria north of Tuscany.  The five villages and the area around are part of a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  They are a popular tourist destination and we have had them on our ‘to see’ list for a while.

Because of their location the villages are best visited by walking or by sea.  We belatedly found out that you can also take a train from the nearby town of La Spezia, although most of your time between villages is spent in tunnels.  We headed off there today by train with Roger and Ali and a loose plan to take a ferry north along the coast (walking would take too long) and to get off at a couple of the villages before heading back to La Spezia and the train to Lucca. 

Planning a trip by ferry to visit the villages and spend time in at least two is like one of those logistics training tasks you get on management courses: there are only three departure times from La Spezia but leaving too late shortens your options; only some departing ferries at each village go to the next village along; yet you want to see all the villages so you need to get the timings right; you could however end up with a plan to visit all the villages but find you reach the one furthest north (Monterosso) too late to catch the last ferry back to La Spezia; and you also need to factor in the arrival and departure times in any one place such that you can spend time there and still not fall foul of the other constraints.  Fortunately it was all made simpler once we realised we could get a train back from Monterosso to La Spezia and so we headed off on the train from Lucca to La Spezia and down to the harbour to grab our day ticket for the ferry.

The villages are definitely beautiful:  tiny and colourful and clinging to the cliffs of small coves they sit above a blue sea along the rugged Ligurian coastline.  Their few streets are narrow and bright and there is a maze of small medieval passageways to explore between some of the houses.  They are delightful.

But……

….on the the ferry you are crammed like the sardines the fisherman of the villages may have once caught.  The passengers jostle around to get the best views and cameras and phones and selfie sticks are waved aloft to try and avoid the sea of bodies.  When you arrive each village is crowded with people converging on it by boat and by foot and by train, made worse by any number of groups twenty or thirty strong following their flag holding leaders.  The few narrow streets are thronged and the bars and shops and restaurants take full advantage.  People come and go in waves, in time with the ferries arriving and departing, yet the crowds never seem to diminish and the queues to get back on the ferries (and on the train at the end of the day) are like the worst rush hour crowds back home.  It is also amazing how seemingly old and frail men and women suddenly become spritely enough to barge you out of the way when the gang plank is lowered.   

It would be nice to go back and walk between the villages out of season in order to see them for the charming places we are sure they must be when not crowded but we question whether 'out of season' exists where Cinque Terre are concerned. 

Before the queue built up.....

15 May - Montecarlo (not Monte Carlo!)

We decided this morning to take the bull by the horns and do something that has worried us for a while: use the car.  We collected it in order to head off with Roger and Ali to check out Montecarlo, a hill top village a few miles to the east.  It was a nice winding journey through green countryside on the way there, a horrible winding journey through rain and hail and lightning on the way back.  In between we enjoyed lunch and a wander around the small and quiet fortress town. 

We detoured along the River Serchio on the return to Lucca to see the ‘Devil’s Bridge’, a medieval footbridge across the river a few miles north of the city.  Fortunately the weather seemed to settle by the time we were there.  Also known as the Ponte della Maddalena and built in about 1080, it was a vital crossing for people doing the Via Francigena to Rome (being north of us we had not seen it on our trip last month).  Before we walked across we did a quick check to make sure we had no sacks of flour or millstones hidden about our person; apparently you were banned from taking them across the bridge in the 1600s in order to preserve the bridge’s structure.

Needless to say that when we got back to Lucca the parking space had gone….

                                

   

14 May - Lucca

The weather forecast was for heavy rain so we had an indoor plan for the morning and visited a 17th Century palace to see how they used to live here and to check out some Lucchese art. 

Palazzo Mansi

We had then planned to visit a nearby town by train by way of a day out but the weather turned out to be great and we were side tracked by lunch and a repeat of the massive antiques fair that occurs each month here in Lucca.  As a result we did not leave the city and ended up chilling in the later afternoon sun in the small but beautiful ornamental gardens of another palace in the city.  The evening was spent in another church listening to some Mozart and then back home trying to whittle down our wine and limoncello supplies with Roger and Alison……

                  

13 May - Lucca

Lorraine and I spent the morning trying to catch up on our Italian while our guests cycled around the city. 

In the evening Roger and Alison introduced us to Negroni cocktails in the little cocktail bar that we seem to find our way to occasionally.  When we asked if he knew how to make them the friendly, aging, grey haired, pony-tailed, goaty-bearded owner gave a shrug and a look as if to say how stupid a question it was and went on to tell us the history behind the drink as he prepared them.  It seems they were invented in Florence in 1919 in a bar frequented by the Count Negroni when he asked the barman to strengthen his favourite cocktail – the Americano – by adding gin rather than soda water.  After these aperitifs we headed off to dinner in a tiny but super restaurant, one of those where the passion of the owner shines through and reflects itself in the quality of the food he serves up.  We will be going back.  

12 May - Lucca

Today we headed back to Pisa airport on the bus to collect Roger and Alison, friends from Tidworth.  It was a day in which we learned the vagaries of Italian timetabling.   

We had checked the timetable on the internet and there was a bus at 11.00 which would get us to Pisa in time to meet the plane at 12.00.  Perfect.  Tickets in hand we set off with darkening skies threatening to dump rain upon us.  When we got to the bus stop however it seemed that the single timetable on the internet was some sort of combination of two timetables posted there: one for during the school term and one for other periods.  We could not work out why a bus link to Pisa airport should in any way be tied to school terms and furthermore we had no idea of the Italian term dates but we did know that in Italy, with all the saints’ days they have, there could be any number of non-school days to add to the confusion.  There was a risk that the next bus was not at 11.00 but half an hour later and that could be a problem to our plans.  It was easily checked by popping into the ticket office.  Oh dear, pinned to the glass were another three temporary looking timetable to Pisa and there seemed to be both similarities and differences to those we had already seen.  However, we were put at ease when the woman behind the ticket counter assured us that the next bus to Pisa airport was at 11.00.

By 11.15 we were not really panicked: this was Italy after all.  A group of older Brits descended from another bus commenting that they had made it in time to catch the 11.30 to Pisa airport.  I mentioned that the bus was due at 11.00 but they seemed to think they had been told otherwise and so – clearly doubting me - one of them went into the ticket office to check. ‘Definitely 11.30’ she said on returning, ‘the woman selling the tickets confirmed it’.  It all seemed very arbitrary and so we decided to just sit it out.

Despite it all we made it to the airport on time and spent the afternoon once again showing friends the delights of the city and in the evening we spent an hour at one of the Puccini concerts, held in the church in which he was baptised 

11 May - Lucca

A late start and up just in time to greet Stefano, our Italian teacher, when he arrived for our lessons.  It was then another quietish day preparing for the next set of visitors. 

Puccini

Puccini, composer of La Boheme, Tosca and Turandot among others, was born in Lucca in 1858.  They love him here: you can visit the house in which he was born, go to daily concerts in the church in which he was baptised and postcards and pictures of him abound.  But it was not always so.  As he gained fame in the late 1800s the blinkered bourgeois Lucchese society did not readily accept a rising star from the lower middle class, a situation made worse by Puccini’s own – for the time – rebellious and lively character.  Consequently, despite his love for Lucca, Puccini had a villa built some miles north of the city in which to live and although he visited the place of his birth often it is said he never stayed a night here from that time.  When he died in 1924 Lucca seemed to happily let his links with the city fade into history.   It seems to have all changed on the 80th anniversary of his death in 2004 when a series of daily concerts were started and still run each week day and every week of the year (so they say).     

10 May - Lucca

Today we visited the home of Puccini, probably the most famous son of this city.  It is a small town house around the corner and has a few items from some of his operas and some of his personal belongings.  It is as interesting to see the house and how it is decorated and arranged, no real hallway and having to move via rooms to reach others, as it is to see the items on display.  Afterwards we went up another tower for great views of the city.  It is just short of being the tallest tower in the city but it does have a small garden with a couple of trees on the top.  Where towers are concerned tall is prestigious.  Legend has it that the Guinigi family – rich and influential Lucchese traders – added the oak trees to their tower in the late 1300s to ensure that it remained taller than the city owned clock tower a few streets away.  It was then time to say farewell to Jo' and Jack who were departing after their lightning 48 hour visit.

Shopping in Lucca

As well as the wide range of bars of restaurants Lucca of course has a good selection of shops: from food to clothing, worldwide to local it is all here.  The medieval historic centre constrains their size so no matter how international you are you can not become intrusive or overwhelming in the scheme of things; there is no shopping precinct or centre and no mega store.  In Lucca small is beautiful. 

Although small, most of the old frontages have been modernised.  Only a few retain the multi windowed wooden frames of yesteryear but there is a local bye law that does aim to keep some of the history of old Lucca alive in the streets: some of the shops are obliged to retain their old signs above the door whatever they may be selling.  It’s charming but could be confusing: you pop into a shop to buy some ladies’ underwear and are faced with a wide selection of ice cream; or you might wander into a shop with the girlfriend with the aim of buying a bottle of wine for the evening only to be confronted with expensive jewellery – dangerous! 

9 May - Lucca

Another walk around Lucca a bit of shopping and a visit to the museum that holds items associated with the cathedral.  It would seem that the Lucchese are a rather dodgy bunch.  One of the items is a beautiful gold cross which had once belonged to Pisa.  The story goes that the Pisans, wanting to borrow money from Lucca, left it with the city as a guarantee.  On the day that the Pisans returned to pay the loan back the people of Lucca had set all the clocks in the city forward by two hours, argued that the Pisans were late in paying and refused to return the cross.  

8 May - Lucca

We caught the bus to Pisa airport to collect Lorraine’s daughter Jo’ and her boyfriend who will be staying with us for a couple of days.  A bus back, a wander around Lucca to show the delights of the city and a late lunch at the pizza restaurant that we had visited in our first days here with the friendly waitress who had taken great delight in helping us with Italian.  She was still there and still as friendly but at least this time we were able to understand a lot more of what she was telling us.  

7 May - Lucca

Today was a day of odds and sods in readiness for the various visitors we have over the next month: a bit of cleaning and tidying and sorting out whether bus or train or some combination was the easier/quicker/cheaper way of collecting people from the airport.  

6 May - Pisa

Pisa is only about 15 miles away on the back roads from Lucca and we had decided some time ago that we would cycle there one day.  As the weekend promised rain today was the day.  It was a relatively easy ride there to join the madness that is Pisa around the ‘Field of Miracles’ where the leaning tower and the cathedral are located.  It had to be seen but we explored the back streets on our bikes immediately afterwards; after the open country of Tuscany in the last few days the crowds of Pisa seemed quite oppressive.   We headed back to Lucca after a couple of hours of exploring although we will have to return to go up the tower sometime in the future.   

The reality.....

Can't see the problem.  All it needed was
 a half decent engineer.  Sorted!

5 May - Lucca

Back ‘home’!  Washing, cleaning, getting clean and generally relaxing (apart from our Italian lesson all afternoon).   

4 May - Via Francigena. Monteriggioni to Siena (21km)

The last day!  Today’s walk was just over 20km so we had a relatively slow start with a light breakfast in the one place open in the small square of Monteriggioni before setting off.  Once again the weather was fantastic.

Last night, from the walls of Monteriggioni, we could see Siena on the horizon so we knew that the ground between us and the city was gently undulating and generally uphill.  It was another day of open countryside with a mix of shaded woods and open fields, rust red and recently tilled, and we made good progress.  We came across a great little rest area that had been set up by a small village for the use of people walking the route: wooden trunk seats and tables, a water pump and even an electric light, all under the shade of an oak and an olive tree.  By lunchtime we were on the outskirts of Siena.

Because of our extra night in San Gimignano we would have to leave Siena this evening so our plan was to drop our bags off at the station and then go into the town to explore before picking up our bags and catching a train home.  First task: get to the station.  Not easy.  It’s in a steep valley just outside the centre and no direct route once you are on the road into town; we lost 45 minutes with all the doubling back on different roads and steep descents.  Second task: drop bags off at Siena station luggage storage.  Impossible.  There isn’t one.  But there was one at the bus station nearer the town centre.  Third task: catch taxi to bus station.  Nope. They don’t have any taxis at Siena station.  So it was back up to the high street to catch a bus.  As it happened there was a shopping centre across from the station with a series of seven long escalators, all at different inclinations, that took you up to the street about 200 yards from where we had doubled back to walk down to the station: how helpful would it have been to have a little local knowledge…

We caught a bus to the bus centre, dropped off our bags and decided on a bus trip back to Florence and a train from there to Lucca (no slower overall).  So we wandered (or more accurately hobbled) around the steep streets of Siena, had lunch, saw the cathedral and the famous Piazza del Campo and then headed back to the bus station.

As the bus headed north we passed signs to the various towns we had passed through or stayed at in the last part of our trip: Monteriggioni, Abbadia a Isola, San Gimignano.  All the effort and sweat and sore feet of more than two days walking equating to literally minutes on a bus.  The same place and yet two very different worlds.

We are now back in Lucca, surrounded by dirty washing and trying to sort ourselves out for tomorrow’s Italian lesson.

3 May - Via Francigena. San Gimignano to Monteriggioni (30km)

Today was an early start, leaving at 7.30, as we had 30 km to do to get to the hilltop town of Monteriggione; this was to be our longest day.  Unlike two days ago though, we skirted a large town at the halfway point so we were not as concerned about carrying lots of food and water.

Leaving San Gimignano

Again it was like a country walk on a hot summer's day back home.  Often we were in shaded woods but there were plenty of stretches over open fields in the heat of the sun; this is not a walk we would want to do in the height of the summer.  We had a couple of rivers to ford early on and as the day progressed the rolling hills and vineyards that defined Chianti country gave way to largely flatter countryside with fields of wheat and arable land.

Today for the first time we were faced with choices in the route. Our map had the 'official' route and we thought it wise to opt for this rather than any unmarked alternatives.  However, it seemed to ensure our route was the longer: early in the day we had passed a lone German walker who was plodding gently along and yet later in the afternoon we saw him in the distance some way ahead of us again.  He was still plodding along and we could only conclude he had taken an alternative and shorter route.  Our faith in our map seem misplaced too as there were definite points where the well marked route headed in completely different directions to that shown on the map: down roads that the map did not have marked; following dog legs through woods and fields where the map showed a nice straight route; and avoiding the town that we had planned to use as a pit stop for food and drink.  The last did not cause too much concern as we had found a small bar in the middle of nowhere earlier in the day where we had stopped but overall we reckon the diversions added an extra two or three kilometers to our day.

We are now in Monteriggione which in reality is an old medieval walled fort rather than a big town but beautiful nonetheless.  We explored the small local museum and walked the ramparts as the day faded and to the north you could see San Gimignano from where we had come and to the south, higher on the hills that stretched to the horizon, Siena where we would be heading tomorrow.

2 May - San Gimignano

We awoke to heavy rain so were pleased with ourselves for deciding not to walk today. It was a day of getting lost in the narrow lanes of this small city, checking out the local museum and art gallery, which was showing an exhibition by the war photographer Frank Copa, and climbing one of the towers to enjoy the views. Tomorrow we set of again so tonight we need to repack our rucksacks and then find a nice restaurant in which to stuff ourselves with pasta....

1 May - Via San Francigena. Gambassi Terme to San Gimignano (14km)

After dinner in a small restaurant, owned by a Phil Lynott lookalike, and a good night's sleep we felt ready for today's relatively short walk to San Gimignano, a tiny hilltop city famed for its medieval towers and the subject of many a Tuscan publicity photo.


The rain from yesterday had passed and we set out in clear sunshine on a route that, like yesterday, promised to be largely in open countryside.  At first we could see San Gimignano on the horizon but soon lost sight of it as we descended into the valleys and around the hills that lay between Gambassi Terme and the city.   It was like a walk in the English countryside in the height of summer: rolling green farmland, deciduous woods and the occasional small river or stream.  We shared some time with a group of elderly Italians, chatting to them as best we could (it seems they did this part of the Via Francigena every year) and on another stretch we happened upon an elderly Italian gentleman standing outside his isolated house who invited us in to see his '200 types of roses'.  We spent a good time listening to his views on the world as he proudly walked us around his garden - which it has to be said was fantastic - and showed us the sweeping views across Tuscany that it gave you.

Approaching midday we had reached the undulating road that would take us the last four kilometres or so to San Gimignano.  It looked strange from this distance in the midday haze, the towers giving it the look of some dark Gotham or other dystopian city from modern fiction.  As we approached and ascended up towards the old wall and through the gates into the city the age and charm of the place was obvious although the narrow streets were thronged with tourists.  Nevertheless, we have decided to spend an extra night here to rest and enjoy its charms before we finish the last two days of our walk to Siena.