Day 11 – Italy – Port Carrera, Lucca and Pisa
We had a late night watching a performer in the theater and then got up early to meet our tour to Lucca and Pisa. The morning weather is perfect here. It was 85 today and we know better than to complain about that.
First stop was Lucca, a walled city that used to have a moat. This city is different than other walled cities in that the wall was build after the Middle Ages around the old Roman city. Their focus was liberty for their citizens, free from the battles of the other regions. Turns out Napoleon ruined it all, but the set days it is famous for the city music festivals where Elton John, Rod Stewart, Ed Sheeran, and many others play. It has the remnants of the old Roman colosseum that was present in Roman cities, only this one has been rebuilt into apartments and restaurants. We even found where Starbucks stole their iconic symbol. Oh, and we saw dead people (this one is smiling). Cute place.
We then headed off to Pisa to take the tourist pictures of us holding the thing up. Out tour guide was great and explained that this area used to be a Roman port city and later a Christian center for all of the people coming in from the north. It has the largest baptismal basilica alongside the church. (You could not enter the church until you were baptized). The tower was near to see along with the thousands of people seeing it with us. I guess no one has ever found out why it leans or how to correct it. Some work was done in the 90’s and it now leans less than before. And they said it should be stable for at least the next 200-500 years.
We meet the tour group and headed Buck to the ship for some TLC and some dinner.
