It's an hour or more of open highway driving to get from the city of Rome to the cruise port at Civitavecchia. Taxis charge a flat rate over 100 euros, which means that anyone travelling alone -- like me -- is definitely ahead of the game by taking the cruise company's transfer service. Plenty of others agreed with me, and the transfer team filled up four coaches! Boarding was quick and efficient and I was onto the ship and eating lunch within about 40 minutes after we got to the pier. And here's the ship, Princess Cruises' Emerald Princess. It's my second time sailing on this vessel.
Princess Cruises photo.
The ship has just come off a 2-week drydocking which I assume took place at the Fincantieri shipyard where so many cruise ships, including this one, have been built. Regular visits to drydocks for safety checks and various maintenance issues are a routine part of all cruise ship operations. Sometimes a longer period in drydock will be scheduled to allow for a top-to-bottom refurbish of the public spaces or passenger cabins.
A voyage right after the ship comes from drydock might be considered a bit risky in terms of things not working, but so far the only glitch I've noticed with the ship is that there still isn't enough water to open all the pools. They're hoping to have all three pools ready by the end of Day 4. Otherwise, there are minor hassles with service on board since (I suspect) many of the crew may be new to their jobs, or new to this ship, or both. This is a 9-day transit cruise from Rome west, out of the Mediterranean, and north to Southampton in England, where the ship will be based for the summer season. Here you can see my entire route for the whole trip.
The first short leg took us from Civitavecchia to Livorno. That's the port for Firenze (Florence) and Pisa. Smart money says that hundreds of my fellow passengers took the 90-minute drive to Florence and spent the day there. Smug me says: I didn't have to. I'd just been! Instead, I went on a half-day excursion to the city of Lucca. If it wasn't as spectacular as the more famous places, it also was not nearly as packed full of visitors -- a definite bonus.
The old quarter of Lucca is a walled city. Here's an internet aerial view which depicts the relationship of the walled city to the much larger modern city which encloses it.
Photo/Map: Arne Müseler / arne-mueseler.com / CC-BY-SA-3.0 / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.de
Our coach had to park outside the walls of the old city.
We walked through one of the several gates in the walls, and convened outside the tourist information office. I'm not sure what purpose this building originally served.
I'm tempted to compare Lucca with the walled city in southern France, Carcassonne, which I have also visited, but there are more differences than similarities. One common feature, though, is the narrow cobblestone streets. The cars and delivery vans which try to negotiate these narrow roadways have their work cut out for them at the best of times. When they find a party of tourists in the way, well....
We had one stop on the way into the heart of the old town, in a small square where a man sculpted in bronze was seated outside a typical multi-storey apartment house. Our guide informed us that this was the legendary Italian opera composer, Giacomo Puccini, creator of such legendary characters as Madame Butterfly, Tosca, and Turandot. The sculpture stands outside his birthplace, now a museum of his career.
We then moved on a short distance to the Piazza San Michele, site of one of the strangest looking churches I've ever seen.
The real pride or hubris of that towering multi-arcaded facade becomes obvious when you go around the side of the church and then look back and up.
Any takers for climbing that crumbling staircase which seems to cling precariously to the back of the false front? For me it was a little too reminiscent of horror stories about staircases to nowhere. I don't think it is open to the public in any case, and this is likely a very good thing!
What is noteworthy about San Michele is that it continues to the full the Tuscan tradition of incredibly elaborate ornamentation and decoration. I suspect a bit of overt nose-thumbing at Pisa and Florence when Lucca was fully the equivalent of those cities in the wealth of its leading inhabitants.
It seems a bit ironic that the interior of this ornate structure is relatively plain to the point of severity. At one time, our guide informed us, the walled city of Lucca contained a total of 93 churches. Many no longer exist, while others (like this one) have been converted to other uses.
There are a couple of other interesting sights around the Piazza. One is this former palace, now a bank office, but still displaying some sculpture in the covered loggia on the front of the building.
Another commercial building now housing a bank plainly shows the brickwork of the centuries-old original -- and bear in mind that this is structural brick masonry, not just a brick veneer as in modern construction.
One of the fascinating things about Lucca is that the tourists haven't taken over the town. There are still plenty of shops geared to the needs of the local residents. Clothing, hardware, shoes, food items, all are on display as you walk through the streets. And there's scarcely a souvenir shop to be seen anywhere! Of course, for a group of visitors who had to eat breakfast far too early, and won't get to lunch for quite a while yet, the food shops are especially intriguing! For example, the window display in this bakery...
...or the various sizes and shapes of pasta on display at this combination store and restaurant. The Tordelli Lucchese in the upper picture is a particular local delicacy.
Near the bakery was this random piece of ornamental ironwork embedded in the wall, apparently "just because."
Our final stop of the organized tour was outside another church, San Frediano, dedicated to a particular local saint. The mosaic artwork on the exterior was the real eye-catcher here. Parts of this church date back well over 1,000 years.
Outside San Frediano was another lovely display. I took my time to enjoy this before it was time to head for our meeting point back at San Michele.
An attractive final memory to carry away from an intriguing brief visit to Lucca.
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