Yes, we are not keeping up the blog. So far we have visited the Cinque Terre and Florence and about to head south to Positano. This post is about Lucca.
In its time the defensive wall was state of the art with a sloped outer wall to repell cannonballs, constructed hollow and then filled with soil. The wall has gigantic ramparts so that all sides of the exterior wall can be defended.
The top of the wall is wide enough to support a modern 2 lane highway. The base wide enough for 4 lanes.
The wall was never battle tested. However, given its size the people of the city, starting in the 17th century, used the top of the wall as a social gathering place. That use continues today.
During our walk of the wall we saw a thriving local community. We saw people walking their dogs, runners, pensioners, people watching and playing chess. There was even a little 3 km 'run with your dog' marathon on the day before the full marathon. People were running with their little dogs! Very cute!
On top of the wall
People were so friendly. So many "Buon giorno's."
The shopping in old town was very good too and seemingly practiced by all. Lots of people watching. Seemed like no two people had the same shoes. Everyone was dressing nicely. Eric said he could do street photography of people's shoes and the little dogs they were walking.
The food was great and we enjoyed ourselves immensely sipping wine in an outside cafe after a stressful drive from southern Tuscany. Did we say how great the wine was? And the cheese? After returning the rental car we needed a drink, or two.
We are not happy with Hertz car rentals. When we rented the car in Florence we signed up for super insurance coverage for dents and scratches with no deductable. They said given our coverage there was no reason to mark dents and scratches on the pre-checkout form. Thank goodness we took pics of the car before we left the lot.
In Lucca where we returned the car, Hertz wanted to charge us for the dents since the pre checkout form was blank. Eric had to argue the situation and showed the pics. They wanted to see Eric's phone to confirm the date of the pics. Hertz backed off.
As far as charging us for dents they were after the deductable even though we had the expensive insurance that waived the estimated deductable. That argument became moot when Hertz acknowledged the pre-existing damage.
Bottomline line is always take pics of rental cars and triple check your insurance. We were covered. The wine in Lucca was very good even after the first decompression glass!
We very much enjoyed the community atmosphere in Lucca. While exercising one morning on the wall, Sue saw the Italian Language School. It offers Italian immersion language classes and cooking classes that last 3 months. This has piqued Sue's attention.
Here are some pics around Lucca...
