DAY — Thursday, Aug 28, 2025
Spent 1 1/2 days exploring Lucca, my springboard for the last third of the Fracigena. Steeped in history, Lucca is replete with middle-age churches that were built over its predecessors and still standing as proof of these awesome accomplishments. Such welcome sites in our modern dizzying world—their timelessness is so calming. It’s worth the price of admission! I’m ready for my first day tomorrow.
My last meal inside Lucca’s surrounding wall was aptly a late lunch on top of the wall almost a stone’s throw to my hotel (Hotel Rex), a cozy place five minutes from the train station. And I enjoyed lunch while pondering the Cathedral where I start my adventure tomorrow.
First thing to notice: no gothic stuff that came much later—all Romanesque.
First two pics are St Martin Cathedral (first pilgrim stamp for my credential); next two pics are of Puccini and his birth house; Saint Michele in Foro (a basilica built on top of a Roman Forum); a pasta chef, and what remains of the Roman amphitheater after it’s filled in and residences built all around it as well as restaurants aligned elliptically.