Tuscan Treasures Tour: Day 3

Saturday, June 8: Lucca

We had a 9am departure today after breakfast at the hotel as we set off for a full day adventure in Lucca, the hometown of our Tour Director, P. Both Mr. E and I were awake way too early due to jet lag, so there was plenty of time for my workout and a leisurely morning meal. 

Our local guide was Gabriele, who was very knowledgeable and passionate about Lucca but who talked almost a bit too much during the tour up onto the walls and through the city. After about an hour, I started to tune out and just enjoy the surroundings rather than trying to listen to all of the facts and details. We visited the church and Piazza of San Martino, the San Frediano Church, the San Michele Church in what used to be the Roman forum, strolled by the Roman amphitheater, and admired the panoramic view from the top of the walls, which extend about 4km total to encircle the city and are an iconic part of the place (and also host to large concerts and other events). Outside of the walls are rows of linden trees, which have a very distinctive and pleasant sweet aroma.

Due to the Lucca Summer Festival 2024, including that evening's concert with Ed Sheeran, the city was quite active and busy. We had a group lunch at the historic La Buca di Sant'Antonio, a Michelin starred restaurant, and I was very pleased with the accommodations they were able to make for my dietary restrictions. Two of my dishes even included shaved truffles on top!

Lunch wrapped up in the mid-afternoon, leaving us with several hours of free time before our next group activity in the evening. L, Mr. E, and I decided to go back to the hotel rather than trying to figure out what to do in Lucca, especially since we were all feeling the effects of jet lag. We tried to call for a taxi, but due to the upcoming evening festivities and general busyness of the day, we weren't successful at getting a taxi to come to the restaurant so we decided to go to the transit point near one of the gates into the city to try our luck there. Still no taxi, but I did discover the E6 bus, with a route that took us directly back towards our hotel in Pescia and cost less than $5 per person. Sweet! The driver was very friendly and helpful and made sure to tell us when to get off, leaving us with just a 5-minute walk to the hotel. We immediately made arrangements with the front desk to schedule a taxi for us at 6pm to take us back to Lucca for the evening, and then we all went off to nap for a couple of hours.

Our evening activity was a performance of opera arias as part of the ongoing Puccini Music Festival. Lucca is the composer's hometown, and they are very proud of that status even though during his lifetime he wasn't always welcomed there and ended up living out his life elsewhere. The program included a few arias from his operas along with a selection of other pieces, sung by a tenor and a soprano with a solo piano accompaniment. 

A member of our group, J, had a fall during the day and twisted her knee. She's the same person whose spouse lost his passport during the flight to Frankfurt, where he was detained and eventually sent back to the US. Yikes! Another member of our group, G, was an RN, so he helped to treat J and take care of her. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a hike back to the group bus for the return to our hotel. Since we didn't get back until 8:45pm, I opted to skip dinner (not to mention that I was still pretty full from the multi-course lunch!) and just go to bed, but Mr. E and L had enough stamina to join the group for the meal.

We learned during our travels about different aspects of Pescia, including that two important economic drivers of the area are flower and plant processing (there was a large facility for this purpose not too far from the hotel) and producing and recycling paper products, including "luxury hygiene solutions" (aka toilet paper).