Piazzas, porticos, and pasta: we're in Northern Italy!

Lucca's Chiesa dei Santi Giovanni e Reparata, the Church of Saint John and Reparata.

In our last blog (you can find it here) we left Corsica, after a week of beach-going and exploration, on the ferry to Livorno in Italy.

    Lucca

Paula had planned this trip very cleverly. She realized that once on Corsica we were very close to Italy. And, since we were almost there, why not continue? It was a short hop from Bastia on Corsica to Livorno in Italy. So we got the car to Italy mostly by ferry, with very little driving!

The somewhat famous Torre Guinigi. 
There are lots of towers in Italian towns; in centuries past, it was a sign of great wealth.

Under our original plan the ferry would arrive in Livorno in the afternoon, too late to do much else. So, we'd spend the night, then move on to Ravenna in the morning. But the revised schedule left us in Livorno around noon with no particular reason to hang around: the city seemed seemed industrial, a port town; not very interesting. 

The justifiably famous Duomo di San Martino (remember, in Italia duomo means cathedral, not dome!)

Close up of the also famous, finely-carved façade of the cathedral.

Lucca, though; now that was a town worth (re-)visiting! Initially we hadn't planned to stop there. Debra, who had her own plans for Italy, had already booked a couple of nights in Lucca, but with the extra time we had after the schedule change, we figured we'd spend a night there, too.

Entrance to the duomo. The stripped effect of the dark and light marble is strongly reminiscent of the church we saw on Corsica, the Èglise Saint-Michel de Murato (which, in fact, was built by craftsmen from Pisa, just down the road from Lucca).

This was our, er, third trip to Lucca, and we knew there would be no problem filling an afternoon and evening wandering through the narrow streets among the architecturally-striking churches and public buildings.

The Torre Guinigi, nighttime version.

We emerged from a wonderful dinner at a small restaurant into a light rain, which ended up not impeding our evening stroll in the least. 

Love these doorways in Lucca!

After our nighttime passeggiata we returned to our rooms at the converted monastery (chosen because they offered a place to park the car!). The next morning we had a very satisfying breakfast, loaded the car, bade farewell to Debra, and set course for Ravenna.

Seen in the streets of Lucca, the family name on a flooring van: a reminder that our grandfather came from this area, where the name Menconi is common, over 100 years ago. 

On our several previous trips to Italy we'd found the turnpikes (like freeways, but with tolls) a bit claustrophobic.

 

Oh, the roads are great, smooth and wide and well-designed for high-speed travel. But there's no shoulders! (Every kilometer or so there is a wide spot for emergency stops.) Unlike France and Spain, both sides of the Italian roadway are crowded by guardrails, And, in places where trucks are likely (often!), the guardrails extend to above the roof of our car! It feels very hemmed in, unlike France where a generous shoulder opens to green fields and trees.

We left Tuscany, with its soft hills and valleys, olives, grapevines, and centuries-old cypresses, and entered Emilia-Romagna and the Po Valley. Here the land is flat and low, with gently wooded slopes; excellent farmland, and home to some of Italy's most famous foods: ham from Parma, excellent aged  vinegar from Modena, and, er, what is Bologna known for?

        Ravenna 

I was not overly impressed by Ravenna, as a city. The big attractions, certainly compelling, are the 6th-century churches with byzantine mosaics. Oh, and Dante's tomb. Dante Alighieri, author of the Divine Comedy and other notable works, spent his last years in Ravenna. 

Ravenna: The Basilica di San Vitale, built in the 6th century. 

Inside the basilica. An amazing interior!

Interior of the Basilica, from another perspective.

Very fine 6th-century mosaics inside the Basilica.

Ah, Dante. Very popular in Ravenna! This decade was the 700th anniversary of his death (14 September 1321, in Ravenna), and his image was all over the city.

A small portrait of Dante seen on the wall of a public building, taken from a posthumous painting by Sandro Botticelli from 1495; in mosaic, of course!
(Thanks to the extensive and extraordinary Byzantine mosaics, Ravenna has become a center for mosaic schools and artists.)

Dante's tomb, built in 1781. There was some controversy over his place of rest: he was born in Florence, so that city wanted his remains, but Ravenna kept the bones and eventually built him this tomb.

For his 700th birthday a local museum, the Biblioteca Casa di Oriani, hosted a collection of modern interpretations of Dante.
(Hey, don't ask me, I just took the photos!)

Ah, but we're not done with the mosaics! These are from the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia (5th C.)

Apparently it was built for an empress, although details have been lost. The mosaics themselves have been well preserved, and are full of Christian symbology. 

No, we're not burning books, this is Saint Lawrence who was martyred by fire; the cabinet on the other side of the flaming gridiron contains the Gospels, symbols of faith. The window is of translucent alabaster.

The ceiling of the vault, a starry firmament. Saints Peter and Paul frame the alabaster window.

    Bologna

We spent only a single night in Bologna. (And, no, baloney does not come from this city, although the region does produce quite a number of sausage-like prepared meat products. Oh, and tagliatelle; let's not forget the tagliatelle!) One of Bologna's claims to fame is the world's oldest university, established in 1088. (That beats out Montpellier's oldest medical school, which only got started in 1220.)

A sun-lit portico on the Via Santo Stefano.

The other big attraction, perhaps more significant for us visitors, is the porticos. There are literally miles of these arcades in the city, some with very decorative tile work. Need to pop over to a shop in the pouring rain? No problem, you can plot out a course that stays mostly under cover the whole way! (On this visit, though, I found a downside: noise. Traffic noise is enhanced in those porticos!)

Further along the Via Santo Stefano, buildings with porticos.

On this trip we only had one night in town, so our time was short. We were entranced by tightrope walkers high over the city. Apparently a week-long conference was just ending, and the aerial display was part of the closing ceremony.

An aerialist above the Piazza Maggiore; his tightrope is anchored to the Torre dell'Orologio (the clock tower, but it sounds better in Italian).

It seems Italy as a whole, and Bologna in particular, has become a mecca for "food tourism."
A recent article in the NYTimes referred to scenes like this—pasta making in a restaurant window—as "zoo-like simulations of Italian grandmothers." (And here I thought it was charming...)

Nighttime view of Basilica Santuario Santo Stefano (also, conveniently enough, on Via Santo Stefano).

A spiral fluted column in yet another portico.

    Padua

This was not our first time in Padua, quite. Some years ago we parked the car here so we could take the train into Venice (parking is much cheaper here than on the outskirts of "La Serenissima"). On that first trip we visited the Scrovegni Chapel with Giotto's magnificent fresco cycle, but saw nothing of the city itself.

Since this was our fourth Italian city in a week, comparisons were inevitable. Architecture. Arches. Carved stone doorways. Churches. Frescos.  And art. An accumulation of art spanning 2000 years or more (although, admittedly, the older stuff is rare.)

And it's easy to say it begins to run together... because it does! Padua has porticos, it has arches. And it has frescos...

One night, walking back to our lodgings, we came upon an open doorway that lead to a cloister with some pretty nice frescos...

They were a bit hard to see, being faded with age; plus, it was dark!

But it was a thrill to find them!

Palazzo della Ragione

The Palazzo della Ragione is a remarkable building. Finished in 1219, it is the largest medieval hall still in existence. Today the lower level houses shops and market stalls, much as it did in the 13th century. The upper floors were the town hall and the palace of justice. Today, however, the upper level is a huge museum,  80x27 meters (260x89 feet).

The portico surrounding the upper levels of the Palazzo della Ragione.

The walls are decorated with frescoes depicting the trades of working people, ordinary life, and character traits, all related to signs of the zodiac. Originally created and painted by Giotto, a fire in 1420 required them to be re-done. 

Inside the Palazzo della Ragione showing some of the 500 frescos that decorate the interior.
The "overturned boat" roof is 27 m (89 ft) high.

Another view of the frescos.

Detail of one of the frescos.

We spent an extended time in this room, sitting and contemplating its enormity. We also moved about examining the walls, working to identify the images and how they related to the associated zodiac sign. Or, for that matter, identifying the zodiac sign! (In that, at least, we were somewhat successful.)

Also on display at the Palazzo della Ragione was this massive wooden horse (no, not from Troy), apparently made in 1466.

It was a stunning experience! I'm very glad Paula wanted to go in; from the outside there is no hint what the interior walls hold. And it's not the kind of thing we are normally drawn to. But, totally worth while!

The Piazza delle Fruti market place, just adjacent to the Palazzo della Ragione . For 800 years farmers and vendors have been coming to this square and setting up their stalls. That's impressive!

And now, finally, one of the top sights of Padua, the Basilica di Sant'Antonio da Padova. The spires rise over the surrounding buildings, and we saw them every time we left our lodgings, but did not actually get to the building for several days. It's impressive, particularly at night.

The Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua, the second-largest church in Padua, finished in 1310.

The main altar of the basilica. There are numerous chapels inside, as well.

We first saw the basilica at night. It's quite imposing!

Three nights, that's all we had in Padua, then it was time to move on. We were up early in the morning and on the road headed west, all the way to Ventimiglia, on the border with France. That last third was nasty: a twisty road through the coastal mountains,  moving from bridge to tunnel, tunnel to bridge, and then, oh, another tunnel!

On our way home after our last night in Padua I was just a touch hungry. 
We popped into this snack bar and had a wonderful tomato and mozzarella panini...

We were glad to finally arrive in Ventimiglia and plunk down in our rental for the night (a very nice place on the side of a hill overlooking the Sea). After resting, we went into town to meet with our friend, Debra, who was rejoining us for the next leg.

In the morning we were up early again, and on the road (again!) for the 2-1/2 hr drive to Aix-en-Provence and the special exhibition on the painter Paul Cezanne.

        But that's all for now. We'll talk abut Aix in our next blog...

Basilica di Sant'Antonio da Padova. Impressive at night!

Andiamo in Italia - Seconda Parte

Lucca

 

This is the second part of our trip to Italy. See the first part here.

First off, why did we go to Lucca? History! Short term: three years ago we came to explore Lucca and the surrounding area. Longer term: about 120 years ago my grandparents were born near there! Which, after all, is why we went there in the first place… This time we wanted to recreate our trip of three years ago (see that blog here), except spend more time in Florence, a train ride away. 

 

Our arrival in Lucca was preceded by a drive along coastal mountains that, at first, appeared to be sprinkled with snow. This got Paula’s attention, but she quickly realized that it wasn’t snow, it was stone. We were passing through Carrara, site of the marble mountains that have been providing the raw material for statues since before the Romans. And still are today!

 

That ain't snow on these mountains near Carrara!

Before long we saw storage yards on both sides of the road filled with massive stone blocks: was a future David hidden in one of them? Other yards had snow-white sheets lined up, eventually to be, perhaps, tiles in some Fifth-Avenue penthouse? (Or in a more modest home in Atascadero?) And still visible in the distance were the white mountains of stone feeding these stockpiles of marble. 

A few of the many yards for storing and handling marble from Carrara. 

Here's a truckload of happiness for some sculptor!

Lucca is not on many tourist itineraries, it has no great monuments or particularly interesting works of art. It does have a history: it was an Etruscan settlement, and a Roman colony by 180 BCE. Julius Caesar met there with Pompey and Crassus in 56BCE. But as mentioned earlier, we have personal reasons to visit. 

Much of the old town was built in the same era as Florence, with buildings designed in the same style, and probably by some of the same people. So, magnificent churches with impressive facades? Check. Tall towers visible from a good distance away? Check. Massive numbers of tourists clogging the streets? Ah, no. But it does have narrow, shaded streets that curve mysteriously off in the distance, good restaurants, and plenty of gelato.

Seen from the train: these barns are found in Tuscany, but only near Lucca. The open brick lattice allows for good ventilation in the hot summers.

 

The green oasis of the city walls!

The most significant feature of Lucca is the walls surrounding the old city. Built for defense during the Renascence (although, apparently, they never served in battle), today they are preserved in their entirety, a rarity. Most impressive for me are the vast swaths of grassy fields around the walls (the former moat?). The walls themselves are brick, surmounted by massive trees. Approaching the walls from the hot and noisy modern part of the city, the old town appears as an oasis of green.

Even outside the walls, there are some magnificent homes in Lucca...

 

On this trip we stayed at the same Airbnb as on our last visit. Our hostess was very glad to see us again, and we were pleased to reconnect with her. While her rooms are a bit out from the center (a 10-minute walk?), there is space for parking a car. Added bonus: we could leave the car there while we were in Florence.

We passed these every day on our walk to the city.

The main purpose of our trip was to visit Florence before the crowds arrived. That worked well, but it was still a relief to get back to low-key, compact Lucca. We spent several long, tranquil evenings wandering the quiet streets as the sky slowly darkened. Sunday was our last full day in Lucca, and our hostess suggested we might want to drive up into the surrounding hills and visit some of the quaint villages; we studied the map and laid out a plan. But, it was not to be!

Detail of the gate from one house. Note the Tuscan shutters--they hinge up to let in light and air while keeping out the intense direct sun.

We left our parking spot Sunday morning anticipating a visit to a much-less traveled part of Tuscany. The route out of the parking lot was a tortuous path around several buildings (pretty standard, in Europe), ending with a security gate blocking off the main road. Not terribly difficult, but at the end, we could not get the electric gate to open! It was just a long plastic pipe across the exit, but the key fob we’d been given simply did not work. We finally accepted that today was not the day for us to be out driving.

Except… getting the car back to its parking space required backing down that long and tortuous path. At least the car was equipped with bumper sensors all around, and an advanced back-up camera that somehow gave an image of the car seen from above. I slowly reversed down the steep slope, and… oh, mercy! Found I could turn around. Ah, that made it easier! 

And thus ended our Tuscan driving adventure.

Approaching the city walls. Paula--mask in hand--heads for one the smaller, human-sized entrances. 

Through the tunnel under the wall and into the city!

Once inside we are greeted by one of Lucca's many towers.

The walls at night.

 

Instead of driving we spent the day strolling on the top of the city walls, some 4km (2.4 miles) all around. They’re wide enough for a two-lane road, but thankfully, are only open to pedestrians—and bicycles. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant owned by a couple who had stayed with us some years ago, back when our spare bedroom was an Airbnb guest room. It was good to connect up with them again; we were glad they were still in business, since the COVID lockdown was quite hard on everybody. (We figure part of our responsibility as travelers is to pump a little money into the local economy, which we were happy to do!)

 

The beautiful shaded road atop the wall.

Looking north across the city to the distant hills.

Looking south into the new town... and the distant hills.

Not much more to say about Lucca, really. It was very pretty, quiet, low key, and we had a great gin and tonic at a bar our last evening there!

 

 

Narrow curving streets provide deep shade on even the hottest days.

A quiet square in the old town.

Chiesa di San Michele in Foro, St. Michael's church on the site of the ancient roman Forum (the in Foro part of the name), with its funky statue of St Michael.

 

The bell tower of Chiesa di San Michele, seen down a narrow street.

Lucca's duomo, or cathdral, the Duomo di San Martino

A Saturday night happy hour crowd, social but not distancing! (Note the "Cafe Puccini" on the right: Giacomo Puccini, the opera composer, was born in Lucca!) 

The magnificent mosaic facade of the Basilica di San Fediano

One end of the huge Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, an oval "square" on the site of the former Roman amphitheater.

An entrance to the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.

And finally, Torre Guinigi at night, a medieval tower topped with an oak tree.

 UP NEXT: The drive back. We didn’t go straight home; instead, we spent the night near the lavender fields of Provence and did a bit of exploring before getting on the road to Montpellier.