08 November 2017 –– At Sea

Another beautiful, sunny, but windy and cool day at sea.  One of the highlights was passing directly between the islands on Corsica (on left) and Sardinia (on right) as we neared sunset.  What a beautiful sight!

09 November 2017 – Lucca and Pisa, Italy

We docked early at the port of Livorno, Italy under cloudy skies and boarded our bus for the medieval walled city of Lucca.  Lucca is an old Roman city dating to 180 B.C. and is to this day a rival of Pisa which is just across the mountains.  The city is walled and grew in 3 stages within the present wall -- the initial Roman Area, the medieval area and the more modern area.  The wall is approximately 3 miles long and provides a greenspace for today’s citizens to enjoy.  The wall was actually paid for twice, once to build it and then once as a payment to the government to retain it when they wanted to expand the city limits and destroy the wall.

We went to the birthplace of Puccini (1858) and his operas are performed daily in the square in the summer.

On to San Michele Square and the cathedral which is a 17^th C. church displaying a mix of Romanaesque, Lucca, Pisa, and Arabic architecture

Towers in Lucca showed signs of wealth by their height.  The one below was not allowed to be higher than the one on the right, so the person added the trees to show his was the tallest in Lucca.

The Roman Amphitheater was destroyed and houses built in its square.  Later they found ruins of rows of seats underneath and the houses were destroyed. Then the covered it over again in the 19^th C. and built apartments within the walls.  The stones from the amphitheater can be found throughout the city in the construction of other buildings.

Then onto the Church of San Frediano which dates back to 6^th Century B.C. and is the oldest in Lucca.

We have more stories and more pictures, such as the hand-painted porcelain, the silk making shop, etc., but now onto Pisa.

A 30 minute ride from Lucca, we arrived at the Miracle Square of Pisa, so called, but no miracles were ever performed there.  The “miracle” is that the 4 main buildings seem to have risen right of the grass area of the piazza.  The baptistery is the largest in Italy. The cathedral is all Romanesque architecture.  The walled cemetery, that had many beautiful frescos from the 14^th C., was 70% destroyed due to an errant bomb in World War II. And then we have the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, which has now been stabilized and is slowly returning to its original position.  The sheer weight of the solid marble is what caused it to lean under watery subsoil conditions. 

The marble for many buildings in both cities comes from the mountains between them.

On to Rome tomorrow!!