Lean on me

7 September 2010


I’m not sure who would have been more disappointed at having to leave the guesthouse on the farm. Niel, myself, or Moonshadow, our little cat friend.

We left as early as possible, stopping in San Gimignano to get a better look at this very popular hilltop town. It really is beautiful with its 13 towers overseeing the town folk. It’s just such a pity that there are just so many tourists, that you end up fighting your way down the crowded streets, with loud Americans everywhere you look. Hilltop towns always fascinated me, and I’m just so very pleased that they are everything I dreamed of, and more. From the little shops and restaurants, to the odd old man you find sitting on his doorstep, to the beautiful winding streets, it’s just impossible to have enough words to describe it.

From San Gimignano we took what we hoped to be a fairly good road to Pisa. It turned out to be a normal single carriageway road through various towns. And towns are certainly in abundance in Italy. Our theory is that, because of all these many villages, there is simply not enough space to build big roads. Make no mistake – when the Italians build roads, they definitely build good roads. But only if they have the space for it.

Finding the leaning tower was not difficult at all. Nope – it’s not as if you can just see it – it’s not that high anyway. But once you figure out what the signs are about, and guess that Torre Pendente is probably the tower, it’s quite simple. And once again we chose to not be trampled by tourists too much, so took the obligatory photo of someone holding up the tower, admired for a while, because it really is rather impressive, and then continued on our way to Lucca.

The historical centre of Lucca is surrounded by a rather big wall, which makes it feel like a little piece of heaven inside a rather busy town. Our guesthouse was situated just inside the walls in one of the old buildings, which made it easy for us to explore the old town. It’s also quite busy, with lovely shops and restaurants and an abundance of tourists. What we didn’t realise is that Lucca is the birthplace of Puccini. Every night, they have a concert in one of the churches, to celebrate the brilliance of Puccini’s music, so we decided to experience some culture. Even though it was a mere pianist with two sopranos, it was quite an awesome experience. This followed by some more good Italian pasta was a great end to our day.