We are staying at Hotel Elisa. When we went to the Lucca Tourist Information Office (that was yesterday), they gave us a list of hotels. They don't book for you, but we could, for a fee, use their computers to access Internet to make a booking ourselves. We were at the hotel about ten minutes later and they were already expecting us.
The room, for 45€, is good value: It is spacious and we are centrally located. Since the hotel doesn't have a garage we keep our bikes in our room at night and they don't get in our way at all.
In the day time we could park our bikes inside the door of the building, at night we brought them one flight up to our room
The geometric pattern on the walls and ceiling has been hand painted, and I believe with great care, as the walls are not at right angles and the whole thing could very easily have turn out cockeyed.
We spend the day enjoying the city. I think it is our favorite on this trip. It's easy to cycle in the old part of Lucca since it is small, flat and traffic is restricted. On a little foray outside the walls, the noise from the cars on the road came as a shock and I realized what a treat it is when the din of traffic is absent.
We cycle from one sight to the next: the lovely Piazza Anfiteatro, some impressive palazzi and many churches - San Michele, San Giusto, San Frediano, San Martino -, much typical Lucca-Pisan architecture with striped facades in white and black marble and stone. When we can absorb no more, we return to our room for a rest and later set out again.
Except for a few delivery vans, the old part of time is almost car free
Looking through one of the four archways at the Piazza Anfiteatro, built on the site of an original Roman ampitheater. Beginning in the Middle Ages, houses were built over the ruins. The piazza was restored in 1830.
For lunch we eat pizza (Janos) and pasta (me) in a little caffé. It used to be that only ignorant foreigners ordered spaghetti as a meal since in Italy it was traditionally considered a first course (un primo piatto) and not a main course (un secondo). Serious restaurants didn't even have pizza on their menu. Things have changed and Italian restaurants have adjusted to their guests' needs. Now it is acceptable to order only pasta and most restaurants, not just pizzerias, have pizza, good pizza.
I am really impressed on our evening stroll through the streets of Lucca. First of all, the streets are not lined with parked cars. The atmosphere in the dark, empty streets, paved with large black square stones which are shiny from the recent rain is almost Medieval. But we are looking for something less ancient - a gelateria, one of those ice cream parlors where the ice cream in all imaginable flavors is artfully displayed in sculptured mounds and decorated with nuts, fruits and syrup. It's a challenge to make a choice. We are saved from having to make such a difficult decision, the gelaterias have all closed for the night.
This is what I envisioned late at night, but only found the next day
Back at our hotel, we are about to carry our bikes up the flight of stairs to our room for the night when we encounter another guest with a huge suitcase and a duffel bag, struggling to get through the narrow hotel entrance. Just as I'm thinking, well there's someone who has never heard of travelling light, he asks us if those are our Bike Fridays, and then, "Guess what I have in my suitcase!" Yes, you guessed it, a Bike Friday!
