Under The Tuscan Sun: Pisa, Lucca and Viareggio

This past weekend I got the chance to see three amazing towns! First we took the train to Pisa on Friday and hung out there for the afternoon! We ate our bread and cheese in the large areas of grass surrounding the Leaning Tower, Baptistery and Duomo of Pisa. (We also have resorted to eating bread and cheese for meals we have to buy because it is the cheapest thing here.) The Leaning Tower is incredible to see in person! I read that due to the subsoil the tower was built on, it started leaning when they weren’t even done building it. However, they continued to build it and added heavy bells at the top which caused it to lean more. Currently the tower is leaning 16 feet to the side and it will be stable for about another 200 years. It was a beautiful day with blue skies, we lucked out! We got some pasta and gelato then left Pisa that night for Lucca! When we got to Lucca we called our hotel to tell them we were on our way and we had a slight mishap when we realized the reservation had been made for Saturday night and not Friday night. For a moment we thought we wouldn’t have anywhere to sleep for the night but the hotel had their daughter, who spoke English, call us and tell us she was on her way to let us in because the room we had booked was empty. Luck was definitely on our side. The nicest woman came to check us in at 10pm, wearing her pajamas. They also only charged us for one night; got to love small towns in Italy! On Saturday we spent the day in the charming town of Lucca! Lucca is similar to Siena except that it is flat-no hills! It was nice to walk on flat ground and also weird seeing everyone on a bike! I would say Siena is the San Francisco of Italy so Lucca was easy on our feet! We walked on top of the city wall and got some beautiful views of the city as well as walking through their Saturday market. We went into churches and their duomo, as well as many of their piazzas. At the end of the day we climbed to the top of one of Lucca’s towers and got an amazing view! The snow covered Apennines in the background were so pretty! We went to the botanical garden on our way out of Lucca and looked at all of the native Tuscan plants. As we were leaving the city walls we were just in time to see a parade happening! The people walking in it were dressed in medieval outfits and were playing the drums and holding flags. You really feel the history of these small medieval Tuscan towns when you are there! We headed to the beach town of Viareggio Saturday night and had a great pizza and gelato for dinner followed by hanging out at the beach after sunset. On Sunday we had the whole day to hang out at the beach, enjoy the rare sunlight and experience carnival for the last time! The beach was gorgeous; very clean and so fun to see the snow covered mountains and the ocean in one glance. Viareggio is known for their huge carnival parades and we went yesterday because it was the last one. It was so incredible! All of the speakers throughout the town were playing carnival songs so it felt like Disneyland, especially with the enormous crowds of people. Everyone was dressed up in elaborate costumes and all the kids were spraying silly string and throwing confetti in your face. It doesn’t matter if the kid doesn’t know who you are because if you are walking along the street you are fair game and literally get balls of exploding confetti thrown at your face. It was so much fun to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere; the costumes, music, games, food. However, the coolest aspect of Viareggio’s carnival parades is their floats. Their floats are gigantic and are so extreme looking! Each float has a theme and there are about 100 plus people who all have matching costumes related to the float so that they can dance on it or alongside it during the parade. There was a Beatle’s float, Arabian float, spider float and even one with Obama on it. Carnival ended that night with a thirty minute fireworks show on the beach. It was an exciting weekend visiting all three of the towns and experiencing the last of the carnival celebrations!

Ciao!

-Rachel