Church of San Martino - the Duomo

 The Duomo - the church of San Martino,  was consecrated in 1070, then there were lots of renovations and restructure projects.  The facade is Romanesque. It is interesting how several of the churches in Lucca are butted up against buildings that make up part of a piazza. as can be seen in the photo below. The buildings are not falling over, the angle is due to me trying to get a shot of the whole piazza. 

The statue  between the centre  and right arch is that of San Martino

Below, a beautifully sculpted image by Jacopo della Quercia (1407 - 1408) on the sarcophagus of a young  woman Ilaria del Carretto, who died young and mourned greatly by her husband. Nice that she has her dog with her.

Madonna with Child, Ghirlandaio (1449-1494) - one of our favourite painters.

This labyrinth on a pillar in the porch of the cathedral was cut into a single stone. Apparently it harks back to pagan times, and had the images of Theseus and the Minataur, but over time fingers of thousands of people have rubbed these characters out, and the symbolism became linked to the grace of the Christian god leading the faithful out of the maze.

Below, details of the decorations in the porch.

Seasons and months of the year - 

Tuscan food

 Tuscany has some wonderful dishes, and we were lucky to have had this place recommended to us. Lots of local Lucchese eating there and and great selection of local dishes. 

photo from the web (above)

The menu in Italian and English is presented on these boards.

Wolfed down half of the starter before I thought of taking a photo - pear and pecorino, baked and drizzled with honey and topped with cinnamon. The memory of it makes my mouth water.

Sue had the local speciality, tordelli with meat sauce, and I had an unphotographic dish of pasta and cheese.

Chiesa di San Michele in Foro

This church is in a square surrounded by medieval palaces.

Built in the 8th century and dedicated to Saint Michael, restructured over the centuries until it is what it is today, a gorgeous gothic edifice. 

with bell tower

I pinched the image of the statue of St Michael on top of the church (below)  from the internet.

Pity about the glare in the photo on the side of the work Pala Magrini by Lippi, one of our favourite painters

(below) The Madonna and Child  by Luca della Robbia is touching Mary looks so very young.

Lucca was a very wealthy town

Lucca's wealth was due to the textile industry. This wealth meant that it could build beautiful churches and palaces as well as  the thick city walls, and at the same time buy alliances with European rulers. So there are many wonderful buildings to look at: so many that I have put just a sampling here.

Below is the entry to the Church of Saint Christopher

It is no longer used as a church, it is an exhibition space. What was striking however was the fact that more than 3/4 of the walls were incised with the names of those who died in various wars.

Puccini concert in Lucca

 

The performance of excerpts from various Puccini operas was wonderful. A soprano and a tenor sang arias from various Puccini operas; the acoustics were superb because we were in a church which was a perfect setting.

In 2004, some private philanthropists started the  organisation Puccini and his Lucca  and there is now a thriving Puccini scene in the town. There are over 300 concerts each year, tours all over the world, and an audio visual arm that has created web channel.

On Youtube there is PUCCINIMUSICK a collection of performances  where it is possible to watch a one similar to the one we went to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ixImHLa97E

He was an important figure in the town, and today there is considerable pride in his origins being in Lucca.

Lucca Day - Walking tour of the city walls

The guided walking tour of the city walls was terrific. The walls originated in Roman times and were constantly updated,  are intact and used extensively by the locals as a recreation space. They are so wide that on top there are extensive parks, and a paved path that serves as a 4.4km bike and walking path. The top of the walls became a public promenade in the 1820s. 

On either side of the path, where there were bastions, the parks are quite large. 

Below is the pedestrian path. We are living quite close to the walls so we get  beautiful cool breezes, that feel like air conditioning because of the trees and all the greenery.

The guide took us into the interior of the wall as and showed us where the soldiers would have sat while keeping guard, as well as explaining the logistics of the walls.

The image below indicates the depth of the wall

This is an exit to the outside of the walls

Leaving Florence was complex- an all transport strike had been declared for Friday. 

Having read about a bus strike, we had ordered a taxi to get to the station, only to see that the trains were not supposed to be running from 9.00am to 6pm, We had booked tickets for the train for Lucca for 9.09am on that day.

Anyway, we went to the station to see what would happen - worst case scenario - go on the evening train and miss the walking tour and Puccini concert that we had booked in Lucca for Friday afternoon and evening.

At the station, we stared at the Departures board and at 9.05 the train to Lucca was allocated a platform- it was not affected by the strike, possibly because it was classified as a 'long distance' and therefore not bound by the strike - or for another Italian bureaucratic reason. Anyway we arrived on time!

Gorgeous apartment, with a lift!

Florence street art

 Not as exciting as Rome, the walls are clean and there there are no posters etc. 

Florence

Florence, the capital of Renaissance culture, centre of high fashion

 and  the occasional lapse in taste.

 

Museo Novecento

 A huge contrast to the morning spent at Santa Maria Novella was the afternoon spent at Museo Novecento.

The main exhibition was works of Lucio Fontana - The Origin of the World. His works were very important in the era in which he was working, and I appreciated these works as great examples of him breaking down barriers.

There was an exhibition of works by Y.Z. Kami, a painter from Tehran. The exhibition was called Light, Gaze, Presence, and the theme of impermanence shown in his portraits was interesting.