Lucca is a Tuscan city that is not a major play on everyone’s itineraries. However, it is definitely worth a visit. I get it. You see Florence, Siena, and Pisa. There is only so much time. I am certain there are plenty of historical things to see in the city of Lucca. There are many churches and piazzas like the majority of Tuscan cities. Lucca is special in that its city walls are still in tact. Many cites have gotten rid of major portions of their walls to make way for further expansion of the city including roads, but Lucca’s walls and gates still look like they did hundred of years ago. They have made one change though.
About 100 years ago they filled in the walls to create a large path. It is quite wide. It was a lovely day and everyone was out walking or riding bikes. The circumference of the wall is not small. A pleasant ride on a bike will take about 30 minutes to go around the entire city. There are plenty of exists off of the path to drop down into the city where you want to go. There are also plenty of green patches, park areas, and benches for you to take a break. Walking the wall is essentially like walking through a large park but instead of the path winding its way around a flat piece of land, it is unwound into one large circle.
Our kids are not interested in these day trips. I think when we were here last spring they saw enough cities and towns. They always say no to the idea of visiting some place new. This day we were able to get them out the door because it was my birthday in a few days so we said that this was a birthday outing for me. The car rides are always interesting because they sit three across in the backseat which they still have not adjusted to. They are used to sitting spread out in a mini van with plenty of elbow room. Although I cannot recall the specific issues of the car ride that day, I remember running pretty hot by the time we found a parking space. The city is only about 75 minutes from us but it felt like hours with all the griping. You might ask, “Do you expect anything else?” The answer is no I do not so why am I surprised?
After parking and making it inside the walls of the city (driving is very limited within the walls) we found a pizzeria. Everyone was happy to eat and that boosted the kids’ spirits. While walking to the pizzeria the kids had spotted a bicycle rental place. They had those two and four person bikes. The kids love doing the bikes. Whenever we go anywhere and they see them they want to rent one. It is one of the rare things that they always say yes to and always agree to do. The bikes always work out the same way: the adults do all the pedaling and at some point, Jenna tells me I am going too fast. I would rather pass on the bikes but since the kids wanted to do it we acquiesced.
As we started out on the city wall path with the bike everything was great. The rental place had given us a map of the city with some points of interest. We were headed to the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro. We had to take one of the many ramps down off of the wall into the city to get to the piazza. We parked the bike and walked just a little bit. It is a lovely oval piazza with restaurants lining the whole perimeter of the piazza. The goal was to see the piazza and to find gelato, which we did. After that, what’s left for the kids? They rode the bike for 15 minutes, had pizza, and gelato. That’s a successful day for them. It’s time to go home. However, we really had only begun our afternoon. This is where the wheels started to comes off.
Aston had taken one of the pedaling seats. Jenna was the one not sitting in a pedaling seat. I really could have used her. Aston could reach the pedals but only just. I ended up pedaling one time before he was ready and his foot got caught in the pedals. It hurt him a little bit. The real consequence was it sent his attitude into a downward spiral. Eventually, Jenna took over pedaling for him while he complained about not being able to pedal despite his minor injury. Then, going back to pedaling, he had a hard time with that and asked Jenna to take over again. He did not know what he wanted. All choices were hard. Once we returned the bike Aston’s attitude did improve.
Unfortunately, the bad attitude virus transferred to Emmy at this point. Big time. Near the end of our bike trip around the city we had spotted a garden so we set out on foot to find it for a closer look. It is called Orto Botanico. It was very pleasant. Emmy not so much. She made it very clear that she had had enough of the day and it was time to go home. She all but laid down on the ground in full protest. We muscled our way through the garden and decided that we needed to leave. We took an alternate path back to the city gate that we had entered from in order to see a little more of the city. For the record, it was the same distance either way so I feel justified in languishing my children to the horrors of the Lucca streets.
We passed through Piazza Napoleone. There was as market that day. There was a stand that had only French cheeses. A little odd. Obviously, Napoleon was French but it still seemed out of place. The other stands were fairly typical with the exception of a spice stand. It was very large and had all types of spices out in bins for you to choose from. Jenna and I would have given the stand more than a once over had we been without the kids. It was quite interesting. Maybe we are just old people now.
Shortly after, we made it back to the gate and out of the city walls. A short walk to the car and we had successfully executed a family outing. We completed it. There were some pleasant moments. Yes. Correct. Valid. If we were taking this day as a pass/fail, we surely passed. If you asked me to give the day a grade I would say, “I love my family very much.”
I would definitely like to go back to Lucca. Jenna would as well. We will leave the kids out of it. The city surprised me at how large it was inside the city walls. With it being so big there was plenty to see and do. I would say that you could have a really pleasant day in Lucca. I mean that in the best way possible. You could walk or bike the tree lined path on the wall, eat a meal or aperitivo at the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, visit churches and towers, and shop if you so desired. It is a low-key Tuscan city day. You could spend a few hours there or the entire day.