Lucca!

Monday, April 9th, we took a day trip to a Northern Tuscan town called Lucca. Lucca is a city surrounded by a fortified wall. There are some small canals both outside and inside the cities walls. There are vast green fields and many parks located on the walls. I figured I had to go there before my mother. You know, check it out, make sure it was safe and such.

The one thing that I do not like about Siena is the lack of green. There are a few valleys that are grassy, but they are private property and not accessible to the public. The trees are located on the outer edges of the city so we don't walk by much green plant life every day. In Lucca, there are open fields and large areas of lush green grass as well as blossoming trees and fresh air. Of the four hours we spent in the city, one of it was spent just laying in the grass. Forty-five minutes was most likely spent eating things (because you HAVE to taste gelato in every city as well as the famous frati, or Italian version of donuts) and the rest of the time we spent walking around, mostly looking at dogs.

This was taken inside the walls, but that is what it looks like outside the walls of Lucca!

There is a lot of grafitti in Lucca, but it is all love notes and song lyrics. We did not see one piece of hateful grafitti or someone branding a wall with their name. It was actually really nice and it gave the city a unique feel. That, along with the fact that Lucca has a very large Anime following and there were mobs of kids dressed up in costume.

"Look at the stars, Look how they shine for you!"

Lyrics from Coldplay's 'Yellow'. Beautiful grafitti in my opinion.