Lucca and Montecatini Terme

Late in the afternoon on the day we visited Pisa we also stopped briefly in Lucca.
There isn't much specifically to visit there, so there are fewer tourists, which made it
appealing to us. The oldest parts of Lucca are still encircled by the medieval town walls.

One of the surviving medieval towers in the old town
offers marvelous views of the town and surrounding hills.

The old town is peppered with attractive squares (below right
is one built around the place where the ancient amphitheater was once).

The medieval church of San Michele is particularly impressive with its "wedding cake" facade.

 

A few days later we returned to the same part of Tuscany.

It was a national holiday--the Festa della Repubblica that celebrates the unification of Italy
--and many places were closed. So we decided to spend a leisurely day walking around the town of
Montecatini Terme. The word "terme" means hot springs, and in the nineteenth century a resort town
sprang up around the hot springs here. It has a look of faded glory, but we still enjoyed the visit.

The details on some of the old art nouveau-style buildings were really beautiful.

One of the most interesting parts of the day was a funicular ride from the resort town to the top of a nearby hill.

At the top was the original Montecatini, a medieval village with stunning views.

We wandered aimlessly around the village, then took the funicular back down to the main town.

 

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