2 April - Lucca!

Lucca was a 4 hour drive from Treviso so it was another long day on the road.  And that was to be only the beginning.

Old Lucca is a walled town and large parts are pedestrianised.  That is part of its charm.  But for us, on arrival, it was also part of the problem.  Those parts that are not pedestrianised are generally very narrow and accessible to locals only.  On top of this it is a mass of one way streets that intersect and diverge in manner that defies logic.  Our flat is in the centre of it all.

We arrived on the ring road around the city wall and the first concern was whether we would get through the wall entrance with our bikes on the roof.  On seeing the height of the gates this was obviously not an issue but we had missed the road to that particular entrance by the time we realised.  Not to worry, there were four others.  So we carried on following the wall to the next gate and entered; it was simply a case of driving back to the previous gate which was near where we had been told to park. Or so we thought.  It turned out that the road we wanted to take was accessible to locals only and we were forced by the one way system back to the gate by which we had entered.  Fortunately, before being forced back out through the city wall, we noticed a small parking area and swung across into it.  From here we walked off, slightly further than planned, in the direction of the flat to pick up the keys.

Keys in hand we headed back to the car to shuttle our bags to the flat and then it was off to a supermarket just outside the walls to stock up with essentials.  We would then park the car in a more convenient place within the walls.  Or so we thought.  

Shopping done we headed back into the city with the aim of parking as near the flat as possible.  We entered through what promised to be a convenient gate only to find that a one way street again prevented us heading to where we had hoped.  We were forced into an erratic series of twists and turns on narrow paved roads, losing all sense of direction until thankfully we saw one of the city gates ahead.  We tried to exit with a view to re-entering and trying again only to find that again the road system prevented it. So again we followed a narrow one way system until we saw a small ‘exit city’ sign which took us on a convoluted route until we managed to exit by a completely different gate on the opposite side of the city to that by which we had entered.  Round the ring road again, a deep breath, and once again back into the maze that is Lucca.

Despite the use of Google Maps on the tablet (which purportedly showed the one way streets) we found we could not go where we wanted: roads limited to locals forced us to try a different route but the left turn we wanted was one way and so we were forced right and then once again found ourselves lost in the city’s streets.  Worse still the battery on the tablet was running out and the few parking places that we had previously seen on the edge of the city within the walls seemed now to be full owing to some mass entrance of people into Lucca.  We felt lost in a maze with no clear way out. 

Eventually we managed to find a way out of the city again and resolved that, despite the shopping we had to carry, we would park outside the walls and walk in.  It still took another loop of the city and a little more going round in circles before we found what seemed to be the one remaining parking slot that night.  Frustrated but now happy we parked and in the course of a couple of trips got shopping bags and bikes into the flat.

We felt we deserved the wine we had that evening, looking down on the street below to the people busying themselves for Saturday night.  Our flat is roomy (albeit strangely decorated) and is superbly positioned right in the pedestrian heart of the city with piazzas a very short walk in both directions and plenty of small local restaurants and bars.  Unsurprisingly though we had no desire to go out that night: exploring Lucca would have to wait until tomorrow.