Lucca, Italy

Greetings from sunny and hot Lucca, Italy!  We got in late yesterday afternoon, practically comatose from four flights and then a long ride with a driver from Florence to Lucca.  What a blessing to have someone standing there with a sign. This is the entrance to our hotel, the Piccolo Hotel Puccini.  Lucca is the birthplace of Giacomo Puccini, the famous Opera composer.

We are a half block from this magnificent Basilica Chieso di San Michele in Foro and it makes for an easy landmark to our hotel. It was first built in 790 A. D. and dedicated to Archangel Michael.

The inside is not as elaborate as the facade but I was fascinated with the remains of St. Zita, an astonishingly well preserved woman who was exhumed in the early sixteenth century and canonized by the church as the saint of maid servants.  

 This is a close-up of her face and She has better teeth than some of our Kentucky folks.

This church  is San Davido Armeno and had lovely reliefs painted on the walls and ceilings

Beautiful, vivid stained glass windows.

Pretty fancy for a baptismal.

This is Saint Davino, a pilgrim in 1050.  He was it on the head with a lance and languished for quite a while in Lucca and then died.  His body was exhumed years later and he was named the patron saint of headaches.  Catholic humor?

Look at the beautiful ceiling at St Martins Cathedral which was built in the eleventh century.  It was a cavernous structure with columns flanking the center isle.  

I had the opportunity to do some shopping in Lucca and this whimsical statue made me laugh. I have not bought anything yet but I am lusting after a leather purse I saw in a window.

A statue of Puccini in the main square.  Last night Dennis and I sat outside next to this statue and had some wine and a pizza.  This town smells absolutely wonderful.  Along every narrow, winding street is numerous pizza and focaccia businesses.  Baking all day long, wafting out such aromas that I can't even begin to describe.  Yum  We had four slices of fresh tomato, mozzarella, and basil focaccia for lunch and then got two slices of bell pepper focaccia.  Oink Oink!  And on every block is at least two gelato places.

We had many errands to do today to get ready to hike the Via Francigena which runs from Canterbury England to Rome.  I would love to do the whole thing but not enough time.  I am hiking from Lucca to Rome which will take four weeks.  Dennis will leave at about the half-way point  and then I am on my own.  We made sure we knew how to get on the trail tomorrow.  These are the tiny markers.  I am going to miss those big yellow arrows on the Camino de Santiago.