Lucca For the Day

Today my friend Teresa & I traveled to Lucca to do some exploring :)

The train ride takes about an hour and a half and only costs 5,30 euro one way. Once I got there I was in love with how quiet it was. Florence is full of tourists and crowded with people so it was definitely a nice change of pace. Thanks to my Tuscany tour book and Teresa's home-stay Mom we had a few things we definitely wanted to check out. 

 One cool thing about Lucca is that the entire city center is surrounded by a brick wall that's about a mile and a half long

These two picture are of the Torre del Guinigi. A large tower in the city that has trees at the top & amazing views

 All of the stairs to the top of the Torre del Guinigi

 The top of the Torre with the beautiful trees! It was stunning

Next we went to another tower. The Torre del Ore. There is a clock in the bell tower that was put in in 1754 that still rings today. The walk up this tower was a little scarier because the stairs were the original stairs built in the 14th century. They were wobbly and uneven, not to mention there were PIGEONS hanging out there... terrifying.  

 The view of the stairs from the bottom

 

After all the stair climbing we decided we needed a gelato. We looked for a place that was recommended in my book & I'm so glad we did... it was delicious.

Gelatoria Veneta

I decided to get a shake with Nutella gelato :)

Fun/random fact... The richest man in Italy today... the inventor of Nutella

We also went to a pastry shop to find the famous bread from Lucca, buccellato, a black licorice-flavored bread with raisons. Both Teresa & I agree that it is not the most appitising thing, but Teresa wanted to bring some back for her sweet house Mom. 

Some other pastries from the yummy shop..

It was such an enjoyable day! Lucca was gorgeous and a nice change of pace for the day.

Ciao, Erica <3