Thus far Italy has proven to be a formidable opponent for our travel passions. France was fantastic, but the current pace Italy is setting could definitely tip the scales as to which country we'll love the most. We left Monaco yesterday morning as early as we could, knowing that the drive to Lucca would be about four hours, and wanting to maximize our time spent there. The one thing that's important to understand about all the driving we've done, and some of the long journeys from A to B, is that its ALL good. The drives are almost as spectacular as anything else we've experienced. This particular drive from France into Italy was hands down, one of the things I think I'll remember the most about our trip. As we crossed the border into Italy, we proceeded to drive through the Italian Alps. Now when I say through... I mean THROUGH, lol. It was incredible, as clearly the Italians decided the only way to traverse a massive mountain range is to cut massive tunnels through sections. So all along the drive for about two hours, it was non-stop tunnel action, with some stretching a few kilometres long. I was expecting these kinds of tunnels for when we go north to Switzerland in that last leg of our trip, but being able to drive through them now was just so awesome.
So after a great drive, we arrived in Lucca basically around noon. The drive in was easy, as the city isn't really congested, and we checked into our hotel without problem. This hotel was a return to my original plan of finding places really close to everything we wanted to see. The last few places were a bit out of the way, but the prices couldn't be beat. The walk into historic Lucca was about five minutes from our hotel, and it was another fantastic gorgeous day. Lucca is officially where I want to retire to! It's such an amazingly beautiful, and peaceful city. It seems so perfectly placed as you can stand anywhere in the city and look around to see the snow-peaked alps in the distance, seemingly surrounding the city. The historic city is once again, like Avignon, a completely walled in city, whose ramparts are in fantastic condition. They've basically morphed into the natural landscape with grass covering much of them, and are so wide that they're basically a giant promenade, with parks, and bicycle lanes, etc... All the while giving you an elevated view of the city and landscape around Lucca. Again, just such a peaceful place.
After walking around the city walls for a while, we finally plunged into the actual historic city. After having experienced Avignon and how crappy it was in the interior, we were a little skeptical going into another walled city. We were extremely pleasantly surprised. Lucca is exactly what Avignon was not: clean, peaceful, visually stunning, the list goes on. We tried to locate a restaurant from the Frommer's guide for lunch, but we feared we wouldn't make it in time before it closed, so we settled on a place that looked pretty popular with the locals. It was right beside a stunning church with a giant open space called a piazza, where many people were just sitting around watching the world go by. The big thing about Lucca as well, was just its authenticity. There were virtually no tourists there, and you really felt like you were experiencing the raw life of the city and it's people. After a fantastic lunch of freshly made lasagna - honestly the best I've ever had in my entire life - we made our way to really the only notable thing to see: St. Martin's Cathedral. It was an interesting church, but it was under heavy restoration, and they were super strict about not taking any pictures or video inside. We managed to sneak a little bit of each, but not much.
We spent the rest of the day walking around just taking in the beauty of the city, and then went for dinner at another fantastic restaurant recommended by Frommer's called Ristorante Giglio. We had the best, and cheapest full meal of the trip thus far. I had a Mushroom Risotto that blew me away. Afterward we had another relaxing evening, prepping ourselves for this morning going to Pisa.
We left Lucca sad to go, but the allure of getting to see the leaning tower of Pisa was strong enough to wipe clear our longing to stay in Lucca. The nice thing was the drive to Pisa was only twenty minutes, as they're so close together. I was very surprised by Pisa, for some reason I had created an image in my head of Pisa that was WAY off from what it really looks like. It's a big city, and busy. Once again the historic portion is inside old city walls, and the place is run by tourists, lol. They're everywhere! They walk on the streets as though there are no cars, yet there are. So here we are driving through a sea of people, looking for a place to park. We finally found a place about ten minutes walk away from the leaning tower, and made our way there. The leaning tower is FAN... wait for it... TASTIC! It was totally mind-blowing to see this structure on such a severe angle, yet supported and freestanding on it's own - thanks entirely to massive relevelling projects that have been taking place ever since it started to sink and lean hundreds of years ago. It's situated beside a big church and a domed baptistry, which are both exquisite in their own right. Let's face it though, the star of Pisa is the Leaning Tower. Up until getting to Pisa, we had heard different reports as to whether or not one could summit this great structure, and we were super excited to see plenty of tourists hanging out at the top. We got some tickets, waited like twenty minutes for our turn to ascend, and made our way up.
Climbing the Leaning Tower is phenomenal. You begin climbing this massive spiral staircase around the building, only to realize that you're climbing stairs that were built level, and are now as slanted in all directions just like the tower itself. As you go around, you're leaning as much as the tower is, it was so much fun. The top offered one of those gut tingling views, as you would lean over the edge to see nothing but ground, and on the other side of the lean you would see the building slanting. It was crazy. We also made some cool friends with two American girls on a bus tour who had split from their group. It was fun to share the experience with a few people, confirming something I mentioned to Lindsay that a trip like this would be cool to share with another couple who had similar interests, and travelling habits. Anywho, we hit the souvenir shop after our climb, and found a nice pizzaria with a clear view of the Leaning Tower and had lunch. The pizza was okay, the view was better. :-)
After Pisa, we left for what will be our destination for the next three days: Rome. The drive was nice, smooth, took about three hours to get to just outside of Rome. Then we experienced the most challenging driving conditions I've ever been in. Driving in Europe has been a blast, and apart from the crap that happened trying to get into Eze, has been without issue. There have been different conditions that have tested my driving skills, but nothing like what Rome threw at me. First, we hit Rome in their rush hour, making the highway around the exterior of the city jammed. There was an accident ahead in the direction we were going, which seemed to make the drivers more reckless. Accident, after accident, after accident proceeded to develop as cars kept trying to get ahead, change lanes, etc. It made me worried for the first time, not because I didn't think I could manuever the traffic, rather that an Italian driver would hit me as he was doing something stupid. I decided to get off the highway, and head through the inner city to get to our hotel. I had been avoiding that as long as possible, but I felt it would be safer. It definitely was for the first 40 minutes, as traffic moved at a snail pace. When it finally started moving a bit more near our hotel, the streets became quite confusing, and drivers are absolutely nuts there. Lines in the road mean nothing, mopeds zip through every which way around moving cars, just nuts. I steeled myself, focused with all my mental might, and managed to navigate through the most insane driving conditions I've ever seen. I'm quite proud actually. We parked in an underground place next to our hotel, and breathed a massive sigh of relief, lol. We don't have to worry about driving for another few days now, as we walk and take transit once we get to most places, but I'll be happy to drive clear of the city once were done here, hopefully making it out in one piece.
So yeah, we're in Rome now at a really cool hotel. Tonight we'll hit up a restuarant noted by Frommer's and try and see a few squares and fountains all lit up. Today is also St. Patrick's day, so I'm sure we'll see how Rome celebrates the day. Here's a link to the pictures from Lucca and Pisa, enjoy! That's all for now, Ciao!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment