*check out my last Tuscany destination - Florence / Firenze - here first!*
After a quick sejourn in Florence, we rolled through the
Tuscan hills, arriving in Lucca as the sunset. What's Lucca? I had the
same question, and can now easily answer with 'my favourite Tuscan
city'. We walked from the station along the wall of this walled city to
our B&B, La Terrazza di Via Elisa. It was utterly gorgeous. Literal
suites with huge beds and bathrooms, complimentary coffee, a pretty
living room and terrace, and all for €25pp! I cannot recommend enough -
we loved it.
In spite of a big lunch in
Florence, we'd worked up quite the appetite, something that would've
been easy to fix had everywhere we tried in Lucca not already been full.
We ended up at Ristorante Pizzeria K2, which although not our first
choice, was a real delight. I had a delicious pizza with mozzarella,
sundried tomatoes, olives, and pesto. So good!
After a great night's sleep, our
first day in Lucca began with coffee and brioche (courtesy of my lovely
friends!) in bed - the best way to start any day. Our first stop of the
day was Torre Guinigi, one of Lucca's many towers, but with the added
excitement of having trees growing at the top. It felt like a lot of
stairs to go up, but once at the top, were afforded lovely 360 views of
Lucca and its surrounds, with towers and mountains stretching out before
us.
We'd picked a particularly windy
day to go up, so we didn't stay too long - plus there was so much of
Lucca still to see. The best idea of the trip came from one of my
compatriots - what better way to see so much of the city than by bike?
We collected a fleet of bikes from Gigabike - €10 each for the whole
day, and then we were off. We cruised along the cobbled streets, past
churches and towers, to the main square, and then up onto the wall,
around the entirety of which you can cycle. The second best idea of the
day came next - a picnic on the wall! We'd picked up supplies at a
nearby supermarket and had a wonderful (windy) lunch of fresh Italian
produce - bread baked that morning with straciatella, sundried tomatoes
and homemade pesto, all in one of the parks on top of the wall. What a
great idea!
We rode through the busy centre, but the best thing about the bikes was that they got us easily away from the crowds, something we all really appreciated. With the end of the day drawing near and more cities still to visit, there was time for one more snack stop - this time coffee and cake at Santa Zita. Still working on loving coffee, I picked a specialty coffee - with Nutella, shredded coconut, and a swirl of whipped cream, it looked more like a cocktail or dessert than a coffee. I had it alongside a slice of creme brulee cake, which tasted as you'd expect it to - like creme brulee. Both were fine, but I think they'd opted for style more than substance - plus no cake will ever beat Cernobbio's Cafe Anagramma's Sachertorte!
And just like that, our time in Lucca had come to an end, but what a wonderful day and a bit it had been. Lucca, you have my heart. Now, onto the next location!
Thank you so much for reading about my time in Lucca! I'll have even more exciting travel blogs around Tuscany up on the blog very soon... stay tuned on Twitter @CiarasCountry, and let me
know where your favourite places in Europe are. Thanks for
reading!
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