Italy, sweet as gelato : Lucca

One of the abundent sculptures available in Italy. This one shines.

On the 4.2km fortress walls that protects Lucca, a slow evening walk is a graceful way to witness Lucca's daily life from here. The pathway was so scenic, zzz and myself had to jog both of the days we were there. The beauty of a changing season carried out by the swaying trees in the cool climate helped too :)

Sunlight pouring down the sleepy streets of Via Fillungo

The mention of Tuscany brings back wonderful sights and smells. There are lush greenary (the pitures we see on postcards are not fakes!), fragrant vineyards and thick olive trees, whole-hearted Tuscany food, wonderful hospitality.

We spent almost half of our 12 days trip in this charming part of Italy We landed in Florence (Firenze) stayed there for 3 days and went on other towns in the region. Here, i am going to jumble the sequence a little because i want to highlight a little town called Lucca, the last stop before we went back to Rome.

For anyone of you interested, the town is not directly connected to the main towns. One could take the train to Pisa and take a tranfser to Lucca or similar to us, opt for the regional bus from Florence (mini-drama - we went through an interesting episode of Italian bus-driver vs. 40 English speaking tourists boarded on the wrong bus. but anyways, back to Lucca.)

Lucca is one of those Italian small towns that enjoys less stardust than it's more glamorous cousins of Rome, Florence or even the neighboring Pisa. It's probably understandable, tourists on a tight schedule may no reason (tourist sites) to visit Lucca at all. But what Lucca lacks in the Pantheon, River Amo or Leaning Tower, it makes up in its serenity,calm beauty that one will probably dismiss at first glance but will grow to love it once you allow yourself to get closer to her.