Pisa; Saturday, 01 October, 2016

I was up early to have a good breakfast before heading out to catch an early train the 20Km or so in land to the walled city of Lucca.

From the station I walked the short distance to the gateway into town and up onto the walls. The best way to see much of the city is from the top of the walls, so I did a full circuit which took around 2 hours to complete once I’d kept getting diverted off to take photos and explore some of the bastions.

Back at the start point, behind the Cathedral, and I turned to head into the city centre. I was just intending on having a wander around to see where I ended up and without even trying managed to find myself in the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro.

The Piazza is built on the site of the former Roman amphitheatre and some of the entrance arches are supposedly the originals. You can certainly still make out the shape of the space from the buildings. As it’s one of the key sights in the city it was pretty busy, but I managed to find a table at one of the restaurants on the square to have a long lunch and watch all the other tourists go by.

After a very good lunch I headed out of the square having a bit more of a wander stopping off at the Basilica di San Frediano to have a look around there before finding myself at the Orto Botanico where I had a wander around the gardens.

The ticket for the Botanical Gardens also included access to one of the towers of the city the Torre Guinigi, easily identified across the city by the trees growing out of the top of it. As I’d paid for the ticket it would seem wrong not to climb it, especially as the wide and shallow stairs most of the way up make for an easy climb. I was glad I did as the views from the top were excellent with the Tuscan hills creating an amazing backdrop to the city.

Back down on ground level I wandered over towards the Cathedral and had a look around that, resisting the temptation to climb their tower, before stopping off at a small bar in the square overlooking the cathedral for an early evening drink.

By now there were the first hints of rain in the air with a few spots occasionally appearing on the pavement, and feeling quite tired from all the walking, I made my way back to the station arriving there just a couple of minutes before a heft shower went through.

Back in Pisa I walked back to the hotel through a light drizzle. Just as I made it back to the hotel the rain started to increase and once inside it spent the next few hours being quite wet. Thankfully I was still stuffed from lunch so decided just to have an early night.