Italy – LUCCA and PISA

Travelling to Italy was relaxing, we made absolutely certain before we left France that we had booked trains from Nice to Genoa, Genoa to Pisa, Pisa to Lucca and Lucca to Rome, accommodation in Lucca, Rome and our return lights and accommodation to London. I really don’t think there is any better way to travel through Europe than on train. It is reasonably cheap to go first class and it is a far better and relaxing experience than travelling by air. You just walk onto your train, without any hassles of checking in, going through customs and security. All the other travellers are relaxed and civil, far from what people seem to be like when travelling by air, in which it is not uncommon to observe people being anxious and edgy. The French iTGV was probably the most impressive train, it travels up to 300kmh and the first class cars are excellent. The trains in Italy weren’t quite up to the standard of the iTGV but it was still a good way to travel.

Our first stop in Italy was the town of Lucca in the Tuscany region of Italy. Lucca is a walled city that was built in the 12th Century. It is completely enclosed in by a 12m high renaissance wall. The town has grown over the years and now expands to the areas outside of the walls. Inside the walls the city is a labyrinth of cobblestone laneways with buildings that were built centuries ago in which are still fully functional today and used for day to day commerce and living. Lucca is truly a special place. The first thing Matt and I noticed about Italy was how more slower the pace is, everyone seems to take their time to go wherever they are going, old men and ladies ambling around. It seems that no-one is in any particular hurry. We experienced some excellent food in Lucca at some of the local restaurants, and had quite a few gelatos through the couple of days we were there. On our last afternoon when walking through the laneways of Lucca we came across a Soecialita Alimentaria which is an Italian delicatessen. They had the most amazing array of cured and fresh meats, cheeses, olives and other marinated and sun-dried vegetables. We bought some prosciutto, pecorino cheese, olives and bread and took back to our villa and had it with our last bottle of French wine.

We went for a run around the wall at Lucca; both struggled a bit, maybe too much drinking of wine on this trip!