Being tourists on the way home

After leaving San Regolino, we went first to Pisa. How could we miss the leaning tower when it was so close? (Ed could have missed it, but Kaye insisted.) Yes, it leans.

The tower has recently been stabilized and cleaned, and was truly beautiful, sparkling in the sun.

The cathedral is also lovely, but unfortunately, scaffolding inside covered the choir  and large parts of the ceiling. The quite famous mosaic that covers the apse was not visible.

After our brief sstop in Pisa, we went on to Lucca, where we spent two nights in the old walled city. Lucca is a beautiful town with lots of towers and a church on every square. Unfortunately, there was an event coming at the start of the next week, so marquees were being erected on every square, which made it much less attractive and restricted view. Still there were sights to see everywhere we went.

This is the Torre Guinigi, which traditionally has oak trees planted on top.

The Duomo de San Martino was very close to our hotel. Its tower, which covered in scaffolding, is really jammed too close to the building.

A closeup of the middle bit of the façade:

Here's Ed peering through the construction fencing:

Looking at the labyrinth on the tower:

This is the 13C façade of the church of San Michael.

St Michael is standing on the top, spearing a dragon (which looks more like a serpent).

This is Puccini, relaxing on the square near his birth house, on the side street beyond.

Ed is standing in front of Puccini's birthplace.

Lucca is the birthplace of Puccini. Ed asked at a restaurant why they were not playing Puccini, instead of rock music. The waiter shrugged his shoulders and said Luccans didn't like-a Puccinni; Verdi was better.

This is the 12C San Frediano, with a very plain façade (stones from the Roman amphitheater), topped with a beautiful 13c gold mosaic with the ascension above and with apostles below.

All the churches were filled with beautiful objects, but we were especially taken by this church. Especially this 15C polychrome wood Virgin Annunciate by Civitali (a sculptor from Lucca who was new to us).

Behind the 12C baptismal font (rebuilt from drawings in the 1950s after being destroyed in the 18c) is an Annunciation by Andrea della Robbia (15C). It seemed like every church had one or two bits of della Robbia, which are quite nice to see.

In a room to the left of the font, you can see the body of St Zita (1218-1278), the patron saint of cooks, cleaners, and domestic servants, who was born, lived, and died in Lucca.

We walked our and Pogo's feet off for two days in these lovely cities. Then we made our way back to France. We stayed two nights with friends in the Vercors, a plateau high in the Alps, without taking a single picture, before coming home to our cats.