SUNDAY AND MONDAY

Sunday 11th September

Last night we ate at a restaurant in the Piazza Del Malcontenti - we were happy! Bon Appetito! All the news today is about 9/11 - even though we can't speak Italian we get the message. Lucca is a lovely city and from whatever direction you approach it you are confronted by the city walls. The present walls are the forth perimeter defence system that the city has had down through the ages. In Roman times the city was defended by a rectangular wall about 9m high. There is still a part of that wall still to be seen inside the church S. Maria della Rosa which has been preserved simply because the the little church is partly supported by it. The second perimeter walls were built in the 12th and 13th centuries and this included groups of houses built on the east and north of the city. These walls were completed in 1260 and were about 11 or 12 metres high and reinforced with semicircular towers. The wall had four gates.

The current wall has undergone several changes through the ages. The first changes were made in the 16th century when the wall was extended to include a much larger area towards the north east. By 1645 the encircling wall was complete. The walls had bastions underneath for ammunition and during the siege by the Austrians in 1799 there were mounted on the top of the walls 124 cannons. The present wall still has a gateway, S Pietro, with a preserved portcullis. This gateway was completed in 1566 and the two side gateways were built in 1864.

Today we were heading for the Piazza del Collegio as there is a medieval renactment. This is an annual thing and is called Ante Diem Sanctae Crucis. We had absolutely no idea as to what to expect but went along anyway. Boy do they get caught up in their history. In the inner courtyard there were medieval stalls set up with all the stall holders in dress of the age and they were all showing how things were done in the middle ages. Grinding flour, making all sorts of things that were every day items back then, baking cooking, black smithing, carving rocks, making helmets and chain mail playing games was set up for anyone to participate in. But it was hot for us and the clothing they were wearing was not for us! But the costumes of some particularly the women were lovely in velvets and brocades.

We headed out through the gate in the wall and there set up was a camp with 40 or 50 tents and all in the old fashioned style. Men at arms were everywhere, kids playing with toy swords, ladies making bread and cooking on open fires set up with a tripod to hold the cooking pots. Brilliant! We couldn't stand the heat so back we went to the Piazza Del Antiteatro, which is a circular piazza with all of the houses around the outside being 4 and 5 stories high, all overlooking this lovely area. Shops and cafes on the bottom floors of these buildings spilled out into the square and umbrellas and tables and chairs everywhere, This is lovely. We had pizza and beer and sat and watched the families and the people on bikes. The great thing about Lucca is the fact that everyone either walks or rides a bike.

After lunch we wanted to see the Guinigis' Tower. On the way there wer met a couple from Hamilton who were walking to Rome. They were walking between 25 and 38kms each day and had done 1500kms and only had 500kms to go. b***** that! They even complained about the heat in the afternoons and to combat it were getting up at 6.00am and starting off and getting in the first 20kms in the morning to avoid the heat of the day. Paid our fee to go up the tower and 288 steps later and I must say that Jannie made it all the way to the top. What a view over Lucca - clay rooftops as far as you can see. Bell towers and churches poke up from between the houses and there are lots of them. We met more NZers from Wellington up the top and they told us that there had been several shakes in Chch and another tornado in Auckland, the All Blacks lost to Australia and lost the TriNations and won against Samoa in the World Cup opener and weren't convincing?? Lots of photos from up here and we trudged down to the foot of the tower and head home via the supermarket. The supermarket is closed Sundays.

We read for a bit as it was so hot and then decided to go to the information centre to download the blog. I had finished my book and the others were in the car so we walked back to the hole in the wall to get to the car. On the way there was a serious road race for women around the top of the wall. I'm guessing that it was a 10km run as the second time around the runners were spread out and the lead runners had a motorcycle escort and the time board on the back of one of the motorcycles was 22.45. The front runners were far going for it - not so the latter runners and some were not in a good space either.

On the way to the car we had to go through the medieval circus that was still going on. Drummers beating up a storm and there was an archery contest with these guys with huge crossbows taking turns to shoot at a target about 50metres from them. They sat on a stool and rested the bow on a specially built stand and lined up and wham - the bolt flew and hit the target with a crack. The target consisted of a round wooden board about 600mm in diameter, in the centre was a raised round block about 100mm in diameter and about the same protruding out from the main board and in the centre of this was a 30mm protrusion standing about 80mm higher again. The bolts flew very level there was that much force behind the release - the power of these things was awesome.

We continued on to the car and got our books and instructions for where we go from here. Our folder is getting very thin now as we take the pages out and bin them when we are finished. We wandered back and it was getting hotter and very humid with it. The archery had just completed when we got to that point and the guys running the contest climbed up a ladder and took the round target down and then carried it past the crowd to show us the results. There was one bolt in the dead centre of the 30mm piece and then there were a dozen bolts in the 100mm piece - totally unbelievable. Back home we trudged and sank onto the couch. It's the worst we have felt for the heat and humidity today. Salad and chicken for dinner along with fried potatoes.

Monday 12th September

Today we caught the number 10 bus at what should have been 8.55am to Firenze (Florence)but which actually left at 9.05am. The trip took exactly one hour and by getting the bus we didn't have to worry about parking and driving in Florence which is fraught at the best of times we have been told. First stop was for coffee and a sweet thingme tart/pastry. They do pastries and sweet things very well not that we have had many but we continue to look. We were sitting at a roadside café across the road from the railway station just watching the world go by and savouring the coffee. We had a small walk down to the information centre and queued up to wait for a staff member who was free. We got up to the desk and Jannie asked this lovely Italian girl what we should do and see as we were only in Firenze for the day. "Go to the nearest swimming pool and stay there she told us as it's going to be very hot today". We laughed and headed out with our map and the places she had circled on it.

In 2006 when we were here we saw very little, a couple of streets and a piazza plus they took us to a leather factory and down a little side street for lunch. We wandered the narrow lanes and streets. The centre of Firenze is not very big but there are lots of lanes that run in all directions. From the station it was just around the corner to Piazza Santa Maria Novella where there stands a huge church with Moorish columns and arches. There is a lot of the green and white striped marble that we have seen a lot of since being in Italy. The pavements are even more lumpy than Lucca so watching our feet and where we put them is very popular and we are not the only ones doing it!

From there we basically followed the crowds. There were lots of people in Firenze today but I guess that it is like this everyday. Next building was in the Piazza di Saint Giovanni where the Battisterro is. This is an octagonal building that was constructed by the Giovanni family and they are not certain of the date that it was built but sometime between 1168 and 1232. Right next door to this is the Duomo - Santa Maria Del Fiore, this building is huge and has a tower and a couple of domes. The colour of this building is magnificent and you can't get far enough away to take it all in in a photo as it is so large. We didn't go into any of the building in Florence as we are pretty much churched out and being Monday none of the museums are open either.

Next we walked to the Piazza del Signori, this is a large open space with a huge fountain and statues, statues, statues including a huge copy of Michelangelo's' David. This is a wonderful statue and you can buy any number of copies of the same statue from thimble size to BIG. Down one of these lanes Jannie spied a likely looking bag shop and in we went. The young Italian was so smooth and there were bags placed on Jannie's shoulder and the stuffing strewn all over the floor. It was an education and one that Jannie will remember as after choosing one of this fellow's designs, it was packaged up so that it should never be used and with a kiss of Jannies' hand we left the shop with smiles on our faces big as. We were headed towards the river - Fiume Arno - and walked down the Galleria D'Uffizi. This is a huge building and every 10metres there is a statue on a plinth and set into a concave surrounding. Each statue is 3 metres tall and is of a famous Italian, Galileo, Michelangelo, Dante and Cellini to name a few. They are great.

Before long we were at the river and boy was it hot. We walked to the Ponte Vecchio which is the oldest bridge over the river and has little buildings built out over the river in a mish mash fashion. It's this haphazardness that makes the bridge unique and world famous. Across the bridge we went and there were literally dozens of jewellery shops on both sides - no other type of shop at all - hundreds of people, great views of the river from the centre of the bridge but too hot. We walked across the bridge and walked up the other side of the river to Ponte San Trinita. Great views of the city from across the river but whose idea was this walk anyway? The sun was beating down and the sweat was pouring out of us. Nothing else for it but to have lunch in a cool spot and a beer. We had to walk a bit to find the perfect spot but we found it and settled for focaccia.

After lunch we wandered very slowly along the lanes and came to a market. This market was both sides of the lanes and went forever. It seemed to us that every stall had either belts and ties, scarves and pashminas, leather bags, leather coats and jackets or souvenirs and there were hundreds of each sort of shop. How do they make a Euro? Although in saying that there were hundreds of people too. It was too hot and we decided to get the 3.45pm bus back to Lucca. Only trouble was the number ten spot was already filled with a tour bus but at 3.55pm we found our bus along with everyone else and boarded for the trip back home. Back home took much longer than the trip going as it took 25minutes to get out of Florence. Once home, we went to the supermarket to get salad. beer, wine and salmon for dinner tonight- eating in again!