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!