Guided tours: Lucca or Pisa?

Posted on September 19, 2018 by admin

Lucca or Pisa: that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to stroll along the Renaissance walls of Lucca or go to Pisa to admire the medieval Piazza dei Miracoli. Well, both can be done with a bit of organization. A guided tour of Lucca, which by the city’s own volition is not part of traditional tourist itineraries, is a favorite among those who want to see the real Tuscany. The Tuscany of small towns and hamlets full of art; where there are small gems to discover, photograph, talk about, and share; where you can slow down, linger, and relax. No competition with Renaissance Florence or medieval Siena. Lucca is kind of a world unto itself. Secluded, reserved, but abounding with small and large treasures waiting to be found. Everyone is familiar with Piazza Anfiteatro (a great...

Torre delle Ore – Tower of the Hours: The Hours of Lucca

Posted on August 21, 2018 by admin

You could pass right beside it and not even notice. Torre delle Ore, Lucca’s clock tower, is tucked away in a corner of Via Fillungo, amid other tall medieval buildings. In the 13th century, the tower belonged to the Diversi family and then subsequently passed to other important families of Lucca. The change of hands was not always peaceable hence the nickname the “tower of dispute”. It wasn’t simply one of the many palazzo towers of medieval Lucca. It was one of the tallest of the city and its prime location on Via Fillungo made it symbolically unparalleled. For this reason, the General Council of Lucca arranged to rent it and place a good-sized clock on it to mark the hours. In 1490, the Council finally purchased the tower and commissioned the most prestigious jeweler and goldsmith, Labruccio Cerlotti...

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds at Lucca Summer Festival

Posted on July 27, 2018 by admin

We have been thinking about the concert of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in Lucca for two days. Two days of thought regarding music, the blues, the devil, desperation, the search for comfort and solace. Two days and we still haven’t quite figured it out. The train came through at full throttle and struck us down. Nick Cave is a headmaster, a craftsman, a guru, a shaman, a vampire hunter. Nick Cave kept company with the devil and the devil wrenched away his fifteen year old son. This is the tragic reality, the most plausible to try to understand what happened on stage in this tour. Never before have life and desperation been played with such mystic force and resonant anger by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. You are left stunned. Sudden solids and voids, dynamics that...

Top 5 guided tours for groups in Lucca and Tuscany

Posted on April 3, 2018 by admin

We want to make a top of the charts list, too! Here are the five tours that are the most popular with our groups: three classic tours, one appetizing, and one, surprising. City of Lucca First spot goes to the City of Lucca tour. Could this tour be so popular because we’re based in Lucca? Or maybe because Lucca is beautiful, a bike ride on the Walls, unique, an aperitif in Piazza Anfiteatro, a must, wandering through the city streets, an unforgettable experience?! If you’ve never come to Lucca, you want to, if you’ve already been here, you want to return. The city is never exactly the same, there’s always something new to see; a corner you’ve never noticed, a church or a museum you’ve never visited, an alley you’ve never entered, a new shop or new generation restaurant...

Taking a stroll in Lucca with Maria Luisa Borbone

Posted on March 28, 2018 by admin

One of the best descriptions of Maria Luisa Borbone [Bourbon], who was the Infanta of Spain, Queen of Etruria, and reigning Duchess of Lucca, that I have ever read, was written by Mario Tobino (writer, poet, psychiatrist, born in Viareggio, province of Lucca, in 1910) and can be found in his collection of short stories entitled “Sulla spiaggia e al di là del molo”. I don’t know whether it’s the best description because, if my memory doesn’t fail me, most written accounts usually depict Maria Luisa’s more conservative aspects: her excessive religiousness, her absolutism, reactionism, and devotion to church and family. Nonetheless, she brought to fruition many of the ideas and projects of her predecessor, Elisa Bonaparte, with an enlightened spirit despite the fact that she was more of a reviver/restorer. No mean feat. Some of her accomplishments: schools...

Top 5 Spring Individual Tours in Lucca and Pisa

Posted on March 21, 2018 by admin

With spring comes a new season of guided tours. As we wait to unveil our new itineraries, here are our top 5 spring tours; there’s something for everyone! Lucca by Bike Our number one tour is a visit of Lucca by bike; a classic. Riding around in spring, with the sun on your face and the wind in your hair, especially up on the Renaissance Walls, is a delight! In fact, with our bikes, we ride along the entire ring of the Walls under the plane, horse chestnut, lime, and oak trees and then swing down to the Amphitheater Square and other monumental squares in town. Just like the people of Lucca: they use their bikes to ride on the Walls or through the town’s narrow streets because, inside the walls, the center is a huge restricted traffic zone,...

Princess Elisa Bonaparte, the Scents of Flowers and Life on Television

Posted on March 7, 2018 by admin

What would Elisa Bonaparte, Princess of Lucca, Massa, and Piombino and younger sister of Napoleon, have said if she had known that they would be talking about her on TV in Lucca after two centuries? And why? Because of military campaigns? Economic and social reforms in the wake of the French Revolution? No, ladies and gentlemen. It is in regard to a much more light-hearted reason, might I say “fragrant”. This powerful, modern, and revolutionary young woman, among other things, introduced new varieties of plants and flowers to Lucca and Tuscany. On February 21, a conference in regard to this subject was held in the rooms where Elisa’s court theatre used to be in Palazzo Ducale in Lucca. The event was filmed by a Tuscan network, Channel 50, and sponsored by the Filippo Mazzei Cultural Circle of Pisa. The...

GlobeTrotter Jon Haggins in Lucca, with Gabriele Calabrese – pt. 2

Posted on February 27, 2018 by admin

Part 2: In this episode, Jon Haggins strolls through the town and visits Palazzo Mansi. The palazzo is a tangible example of the opulence and power of Lucca past. Other landmarks are also viewed such as the Walls and some of the most beautiful historical gardens. The vegetation is, in fact, an element which ties the historical center to the ancient outlying “six-mile territory”. Borgo a Mozzano, Celle dei Puccini, and a farmhouse in Montecarlo, where typical local dishes are prepared, attest to the excellence of the rural historical landscape of what once constituted the territory of the ancient Republic of Lucca.

GlobeTrotter Jon Haggins in Lucca, with Gabriele Calabrese

Posted on February 13, 2018 by admin

Part 1: Giacomo Puccini, other famous Lucca composers, music and show venues of Lucca are the common thread in the first part of Jon Haggins’s documentary. Gabriele guides the guests through the town, entertaining them with anecdotes and unravelling this long thread that is permanently and “harmoniously” tied to the history of Lucca.

The Italian TV show “Cake Star” arrives in Lucca with Damiano Carrara

Posted on February 8, 2018 by admin

There are many Lucchesi throughout the world that have worked as actors, singers, writers, bankers, figurine makers. Then there is Damiano Carrara, a young and handsome pastry chef. Damiano was born in Lucca in 1985 and began working as a bartender. He migrated to Ireland and then to California, where, in a blink of an eye, he opened up “Carrara Pastries” with his brother, Massimiliano. A success. Perhaps it’s in part because he’s quite good-looking, with a luminous smile and sunny disposition, that the Food Network called him to compete in the Spring Baking Championship, but, more likely, it was a network screen test. The following year, in fact, he became a judge of the Halloween Baking Championship, Spring Baking Championship, and, in 2017, of Bake Off Italia. He also wrote a couple of cookbooks with his brother: Dolce...