Lucca - Wednesday 9 October

We had to be in the Michelangelo Dining Room by 7:30 am this morning for our 4.5 hour Princess tour to Lucca (due to start at 8 am. It was very frustrating sitting there, waiting another 25 minutes past the actual deadline, until the final go ahead to move at 7:55 am. We headed off with a busload of others towards Lucca, and within half an hour of the tour's start we pulled into a petrol station where those who needed to could have a free toilet stop before arriving in Lucca another 15 minutes away. Would you believe it.... All but 6 passengers got off to use the toilet, and we spent nearly 15 minutes wasting valuable time waiting for them - duh! There was plenty of time before we left the ship, and strangely enough, Lucca does have toilets too...!

It was interesting looking at the countryside along the motorway - we could see the Duomo and Leaning Tower of Pisa in the distance, the quarry on the hillside where sandstone for the local buildings was excavated, and the area of hills where the white marble came from. Some parts of the landscape reminded us of New Zealand, except we have noticed that we rarely see animals.

Finally we got into the lovely Tuscan walled town of Lucca (a Roman colony in 180 BC) and heard some of its history. It was interesting hearing about how town walls developed over time as a result of weapon developments, and how the fortifications around Lucca were largely huge, deep embankments of dirt, lined on the outside with bricks or stone. Now they have planted trees on top to make parks (they use a lot of Linden Trees).

We saw some of the remnants of the ancient Roman amphitheatre that were now converted into homes and shops.

We strolled into the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro and got delayed there while some of our fellow tour passengers had a long conversation with our guide about taxes and property taxes in both Italy and the USA, and the Italian Prime Minister and other political matters... Eventually moving on, we saw the watch tower (Torre Guinigi), and heard about the town during the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods. There was also another long discussion about opera when we stopped at the school where Puccini had studied. Sigh... So much for seeing as much as we could.

Finally we made it to the Piazza San Martino with its Duomo. We had a quick look in there (very dimly lit, gloomy interior but with beautiful stained glass windows) at the much-revered Crucifix. We heard about the legend of how this Cross came to end up in Lucca and about the annual 13 September celebration of the town, when the Cross is paraded through the streets that are all lit up with candles. We saw a different style 'Last Supper' painting, thought to be by Tintoretto or a member of his family or his workshop in 1593.

We headed to the Piazza San Michele and had a quick look in the church of San Michele in Foro (also very gloomy inside). This left us with 50 minutes of free time to wander around. No chance of heading up on the town walls for a look, or to stroll or cycle along them. I guess that means we'll need to come back to Lucca in the future.

We bought a couple of bottles of the local chianti wine, and looked at the shops as we explored some of the nearby streets. We liked the feel and atmosphere of the town. Everyone rides bikes (much like we saw in Amsterdam), and you have to be really careful when you stop or turn to look at something or you'll cause a collision. David had to grab hold of my arm several times before I came a cropper in a collision.

Before we knew it we were back on the bus for the 50 minute trip back to the ship at the port of Livorno, arriving by 12:30 pm. We headed for the buffet lunch and ended up sitting with a couple of Aussies who said they hadn't been to this part of the world before, but had missed what we thought was the incredible opportunity to visit Florence and Pisa, let alone anywhere else in the area, and had just caught the ship's shuttle for a quick look at what they described as the 'boring' shops in Livorno. All that history, and they didn't see any of it.

David was keen to have a relaxing soak in the spa, and then we settled down to read our books. I used one of my Captain's Circle drink vouchers for a cocktail (Bombay Sapphire gin, Grenadine, and a cherry Brandy). We caught up briefly with the Barrows just before we headed off for our usual 6 pm dinner. They'd had a great day in Florence and had enjoyed climbs up the Leaning Tower of Pisa, as well as the dome of the Duomo in Florence.

We had a great dinner, and sat next to a couple from Aussie and had a good chat with them. After lingering over dinner (me having two large glasses of wine, followed by a Lemoncello...) Needless to say, I was slightly tiddly. We looked around the Piazza, and I looked at the deals on dress rings (artificial) and bought two more to go with the two I'd bought a few nights ago. David is very pleased with one in particular, because it looks like a huge and expensive diamond, but it only cost US$16!