Lucca

Our first day in Florence was spent…mostly outside Florence. We had no engagements in the morning, so after a leisurely breakfast we set out for a quick walk around the city centre, taking in such sights as Palazzo Strozzi, Piazza della Repubblica, and Ponte Vecchio. We’ll be covering all these again tomorrow on our guided tour so I didn’t take my camera, safe in the knowledge that we’ll being seeing them all again soon.

Back at the hotel in time to depart for the day’s big event: a trip to the city of Lucca, about one hour’s drive from Florence. Lucca is famed for being the birthplace of Giacomo Puccini, him of the operas. When we arrived we had a quick walk into the central square, Piazza Napoleone, and were released for about an hour to explore. As we had breakfasted well and were due to have an early dinner, we decided that lunch would consist of gelato, and found a suitable gelateria. We had also been told that Lucca was the best place for shopping, so scouted out some locations for later perusal. Unfortunately at the time we arrived most places were closed for lunch, and wouldn’t reopen until 3:30pm. No matter, we had other things to occupy ourselves in between.

San Michele church in Lucca - patron saint of Marks & Spencer

At 2:00pm we reconvened, and were joined by two guides from the Puccini museum. The Puccini museum is very small, basically being the apartment in which he was born and grew up, and unsuitable for groups of 20. We therefore split into two factions, and took opposite routes so as not to trip over each other.

Giorgio took us to the museum, which is in an apartment block of 14^th century vintage. Naturally, it’s very small compared to modern buildings, and is also still home to some members of the general public, who share the building with the museum. Giorgio gave us a tour including Puccini’s Steinway piano, some original costumes from productions of his operas through the years, including the gown worn for the original production of Turandot from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. There were also various other artefacts – letters, scores, photos – and Giorgio gave us an edited highlights package of the life of Puccini.

Yer man Puccini, fag in hand

The Puccini family tree...composers in red

We finished around 4:00pm and then had another hour to explore and shop. We tried the first place I’d spotted earlier, in search of a new leather jacket, but they didn’t have anything suitable that fitted me. We then set out for a feature of Lucca which had evaded us so far – the Piazza Dell’Anfiteatro, which is unusual because it’s not a square; it’s an ellipse. The place is now entirely given over to bars and restaurants so, having seen it, there wasn’t much else to do but take a picture, turn around and leave. On the way back, however, I espied some leather jackets in a shop; in fairly short order I'd found one that fitted, and a sum of money changed hands.  

An ellipsoid square

We met up at the agreed place and went on for our dinner at Ristorante All’Olivo. This turned out to be the best meal we’ve had so far in our travels – antipasto beautifully presented including crostini as well as salumi; an artichoke heart lasagne; a main of slow-cooked lamb; and finally what can only be described as Italian apple pie.

After a hurried espresso, as we were running a little behind schedule, we quick-marched for three minutes to reach the church that was hosting our concert for the evening. Not an opera, but 6 arias by Puccini, interspersed with three from Mozart. Jack & Wolfie’s greatest hits, if you like. It included the inevitable Nessun Dorma, and other songs from Turandot, Madame Butterfly, Tosca and La Bohème. The pianist also got to give a virtuoso performance with a fantasia on Madame Butterfly.

We had a short walk back to the bus, then drove back to Florence, arriving back at the hotel around tennish, with most of the party ready to drop by that stage. Tomorrow – more Florentine adventures!