Lucca to Montecatini Alto - 21 miles |
The parking, or “sosta”
as it's known in Italian, had filled right up. We were aware that
next Tuesday is a public holiday in Italy so if they were anything
like the Spanish, most people would take Monday off and make it a
four-day weekend. We were on our guard!
Piazza Napoleone |
San Giovanni |
Duomo San Martino |
Asymmetric frontage |
Some finer detail |
As planned, up early
and a 10 min walk to the city walls, taking Jamie as he appeared to
be much better – we'd actually starved him for 24 hrs which is an
approved treatment for dicky tummy. Lucca has no definite central
place of attractions so we headed along Via Vittorio Emanuel II
towards the Duomo San Martino, finding Piazza Napoleone (but no
statue, well if it was he'd forgotten to put his trousers on.....!)
We passed a number of other churches along the way, as well as
attractive piazzas, but noted that despite it being a very religious
country many of the churches were in a state of disrepair. Not so of
the main Duomo, however, which was undergoing some restoration. We
particularly noticed the black and white horizontal lines, a very
asymmetric frontage and almost all the columns had been decorated
differently. A longish queue of folk waiting to pay their entrance
fee to go in, but again Jamie precluded us from doing the same.
Piazza Anfiteatro Romano (red van parked just as we arrived!!! Ignore it) |
Taking a roughly
circular route we slowly wandered back to the van, finding a lovely
oval-shaped piazza, Anfiteatro Romano, full of cafes of course then
Via San Gorgio, which was the main shopping street. A short walk
along the top of the walls – there is a wide pathway apparently all
around the city – before exiting through one of the gates back to
the van. An attractive place to visit and which apparently is also on
some cruise ship itinerarys – we met a couple who were “lost”.
But now to decide what
next. We were in need of some serious shopping and in view of the
impending public holiday thought a few days on a campsite away from
the coast would be nice. We spotted an attractive looking ACSI site
at Montecatini, a place Terry visited with a coach party some years
ago, so decided on there. But first TomTom found the local Carrefour
where we also had lunch, then took us the off-motorway route to
Montecatini Alto, pausing to refuel at the cheapest place we've yet
seen in Italy, although that's relative of course. €1.42 per litre!
A nice run up into the
Tuscany hills and the site turned out to be every bit as attractive
as the book said. We were given a nice roomy and part-shaded pitch
with lovely views and settled in for a few days.
We stayed at:
Camping Belsito, Montecatini Alto. ACSI €19. Full facilities including small shop, restaurant/bar, 2 swimming pools and wellness centre. Terraced pitches with good views of Tuscany.
Technical note: we bought Bren a new camera as the old one, though still taking excellent pictures, kept eating batteries. The panoramic view above was a first try - looks good!
Also please excuse the random placing of pictures - I've reformatted the pages to be wider and it's upset the placings. Should be better in future posts.
Camping Belsito, Montecatini Alto. ACSI €19. Full facilities including small shop, restaurant/bar, 2 swimming pools and wellness centre. Terraced pitches with good views of Tuscany.
Technical note: we bought Bren a new camera as the old one, though still taking excellent pictures, kept eating batteries. The panoramic view above was a first try - looks good!
Also please excuse the random placing of pictures - I've reformatted the pages to be wider and it's upset the placings. Should be better in future posts.