Lucca in Tuscany- hard to get into, easy to get around

Lucca- why is it hard to get into? Is it fully booked? Is there a massive drawbridge which collapsed in the last storm?
No, but close.
Lucca has a perfectly preserved city wall, as wide as a road, with only six small rounded gateways for entrance. The only cars in sight belong to people who live within the walls, and most of them seem to have bikes instead. Any other cars are charged $2.50 an hour to park.
The result is an almost car free, peaceful town where you can walk anywhere around the winding streets and frequent open piazzas, moving out of the way at the tinkle of a bike bell. Locals are so relaxed they even say ‘Buon Giorno!’ Lucca became a self governing city in 12th century, and had few political troubles- hence the preservation of the walls.

Easy to get around. Sunday we walked around the broad Renaissance walls, circumvallazione, along with every grandma and grandpa, either on their stately bikes, or walking in their winter coats, just unwrapped from the mothballs. There were bikes with dad riding, baby strapped on his chest, and Mum side saddle on the back! Young couples walked their dogs, just released from their tiny apartments, young men in jeans and black jackets sauntered and slouched, and small children whooped and played, all in golden sunshine.
It was the day of the Lucca Wall International Bike Race, too. Hundreds of competitors raced a portion of the wall, then down onto the green park below, up slopes so steep some had to carry their bikes, around hairpin bends and back along the wall. The commentary was a continuous torrent of Italian- all I know is that Marco Aurelio Fontana did very well, as his name was repeated many times!
Lucca is in Northern Tuscany. It has the ochre, yellow, umbers and creams you see in Tuscan paintings, along with mellow orange and brown roof tiles, big wooden doors, stone streets and archways. Picture book stuff. Our apartment is in a typical four storey tenement, windows with shutters, parquet floor with Persian rugs spacious and lovely.

Hard to get up. Its only drawback, and it is a big steep and difficult one, are the two flights of stone stairs, so steep that it is better to descend backwards. It was so hard to pull the suitcases up the stairs- I was afraid of falling backwards. Extraordinary how any could manage those stairs on a daily basis.
However we do, and we go forth and explore with great delight.

Our apartment on Via Del Fosso overlooks a running stream. When Napoleon’s sister , Elisa, was appointed governor of Lucca she was so appalled by the stench coming form the then open sewers she ordered them covered over. By the time she left, the water was clean enough to drink. Today we will walk along Via Elisa and through one of the city gates named after her, Porta Elisa, and remember this woman of the early 1800s who made such a difference in this lovely town, there is now a statue to her in Piazza Napoleone . In fact a coffee and croissant there could be a fitting tribute to her.