Yesterday we noticed lots of cyclists, on a range of hired bikes, dodging pedestrians: so not to be outdone we thought we should join them. More importantly I had come to the realisation that Lucca is absolutely dead flat, although surrounded by some impressive mountains. With some apprehension I approached the bike hire place and considered the option of a tandem ( head straight for divorce I immediately thought!) or one of the double pedal cars ( see tandem) and settled on a standard bike equipped with basket.
No helmets required here, and it was a perfect balmy day as we set off to do the top of the Lucca wall ride: all 4 kms of it. The road is wide and huge trees have been planted on either side. Every now and then you reach an embattlement where presumably cannons and weapons were used to keep out invaders. The wall itself is about 8 metres high and just as wide with huge gates or portas which allow exit through the wall. You just pedal or walk around slowly, and when something looks interesting there are numerous paths down into the old city.
We pedalled around for the morning, stopping for anything interesting that required investigation. We did see a number of Duomos, including one that truly met the Lonely Planet's description of a 'giant wedding cake'. Apparently Lucca has 99 churches so you will be thrilled to hear that we saw only a few. But we did got to the Palazzo Pfanner and gardens owned by an Austrian who sold beer to be served in the Gardens of the huge mansion and eventually made enough money to buy the entire place. He was also a doctor and Surgeon in the late 1800s so there were some very torturous looking medical instruments and the skeleton of a foetus from that era.
At one point we came across a market square with a huge open marquee busy with bakers making all sorts of bread in huge outdoor ovens. We went to see what was going on and were given two huge paper bags of slices of fresh warm bread, some with chocolate, fruit and fennel seeds. It was a fundraising exercise for a domestic violence and stalking program so we donated some euros and wandered around the market munching the delicious bread. Ewan surprisingly (not) spent ages at a technology stall eventually buying a tiny speaker for his phone and a penknife ( to replace the one he lost at security for the St Peter's Basilica). I just need to point out that I bought nothing!
At one of our other stops Ewan bought himself a new lycra bike top designed by the shop owner for the World Road Cycling Championships. The other members of his Sunday cycling group will be so jealous!
The lovely thing about the wall is that in addition to the tourists (who are the ones with maps trying to work out where the hell they are) lots of locals use the path. It was Sunday so the playgrounds were in full use by families often including a Nonna in a wheelchair. At tables dotted around the path groups of old men were busy playing dominos and arguing with each other. It was clearly the place for dog walkers, but they were all on leads and very well behaved compared to some dogs I could mention! Avoiding the pedestrians was quite an art but we didn't cause any injuries as everyone just ambles along.
Ewan rode his bike so slowly that I could barely stay upright so I pedalled off without him, stopping to take photos while he caught up to me. He has perfected the art of pedalling slowly as he exercises the dogs by cycling with them. Knowing our dogs, they aren't speed demons so that explains his slow pace.
There is evidence of the World Cycling Championships everywhere: the shop window displays, posters and the occasional lean and mean looking cyclist contrasting with the rest of us mooching along.
When we returned to our rooms Ewan managed to find the Time Trials on today on the TV. Yesterday in Florence I noticed that they were setting up metal barriers around the Duomo, and sure enough that was part of the track for today. Ewan was most annoyed because Orica Green with 3 Australians in the team came in second by a mere 0.8 second.
We had a quiet afternoon to have some down time before going on a ramble through some of the streets we hadn't seen. I climbed a Tower to get a great view of Lucca, whilst Ewan rested his ankle. We found ourselves strolling around part of the wall again as the sun set. Very relaxing end to a lovely day.
your chilled out reporter
Dianne
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