Lucca and Pisa

School field trip to Lucca and Pisa Oct 19

I know! I'm super behind on my posts. It's terrible, but I'm having so much fun experiencing Italy that I haven't been updating my blog as frequently as I thought I would be. 

So…

A little background on Lucca (via wikipedia) Lucca was founded by the Etruscans (there are traces of a pre-existing Ligurian settlement) and became a Roman colony in 180 BC. The rectangular grid of its historical centre preserves the Roman street plan, and the Piazza San Michele occupies the site of the ancient forum. Traces of the amphitheatre can still be seen in the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.

Definitely the coolest thing about Lucca were the walls surrounding the city. They are intact to this day and are used as a park / walking path for the people of the city. We took advantage of the beautiful day and had a lovely bike ride around Lucca. 

So green on the walls! 

View from the top

Looking down the wall… 

Group shot :) 

Val, Isabel and I 

Cycling through the city on our cool little rental bikes. Too bad the seat didn't have more cushion :(

Biking through the streets and all of the sudden… tower with a tree growing out of it! We didn't know why there were trees on top of the tower but it was a nice picture. Later I googled the image and learned "Seven full grown oaks trees atop the 14 story, about 44 metres high, Tower of Guinigis in Lucca, Italy are a strange sight and a great tourist attraction. The tower was built in mid fourteenth century by the Guinigis, a rich merchant family of the town. During this period it was traditional for every rich family to build a tower whose height represented the status of the family. The rich often competed to have the tallest tower. Most of the towers of that era have gone but this unique tower with seven Holm Oaks on top is still standing. The Guinigi family planted these trees to represent rebirth and renewal."

There's always one who can't figure out the kickstand… cough cough Gabriela!

Cathedral of Saint Martin  - So beautiful with the backdrop of a blue sky. 

Next up… Pisa! 

Everyone knows about the leaning tower of Pizza, I mean Pisa, and the silly poses tourists create in front of the tower. 

Did I do it right?

It was an absolutely gorgeous day and Isabel, Val, and I had to show our Gamma spirit!

The Baptistry, the Church, and the Bell tower. Pisa was a maritime power in the 11th century until they fought some major battles and the port silted up. The basilica and the cathedral look very similar to the Duomo in Florence, but these were started about two hundred years earlier. 

Climbing to the second level of the baptistry. The baptistry was built with unique acoustics, sound reverberates for about 18 seconds. On the hour, a woman sings from the center of the baptistry. She sings in short bursts of sound, and the sounds overlap and it mimics and entire choir. 

The view from the Baptistry. 

Speaking podium (fancier term?) inside of the Cathedral. Each panel represents a scene from the Bible and is several layers of people deep. 

A view from the bottom of the leaning tower. Why does the tower lean? The tower is built of of marble  and was too heavy for the small footprint the architect envisioned. By the fourth floor they realized that it was already tipping and "bent" the construction a bit to compensate. Obviously the engineers didn't realize to what extent the tower would lean. The tower's lean was slightly corrected in 1990-2001 due to a danger of it falling over, but it wasn't completely corrected (it's called the LEANING tower of Pisa)! 

Pisa <3