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Wednesday 14th September
Last day in Lucca and it's been a lovely place to stay. We have enjoyed this place so much. This morning we hired bikes mainly to do the wall. It's been so hot and walking 4.2kms didn't seem to be the right thing to do. The bikes from the information centre are not well maintained ( so there's a job for you Mike) and it took a few goes to get bikes that everything was secure on. The first little hill up to the top of the wall took some doing as these bikes don't have any gears. I'm still not certain that I had a back brake but we trundled along the top of the wall which in parts was wider than a lot of the roads we have had to drive on. We made frequent stops for photos as from up there it gives you a different perspective of Lucca. Not only can you see a lot of the old town but outside the walls you can see the whole area of the new town. We stopped for coffee at a flash café on top of the wall and spoke to a Canadian couple who were spending a month in Tuscany. Downstairs under the café there is a museum (within the walls of the city) that tells you all the history of the building of the walls of Lucca. The Romans had a big part in establishing Lucca but the ramparts have been rebuilt and modified so many times over the ages until it gets to the stage of what we have today.
We wandered back through town, returned the bikes as Jannie didn't fancy trying to ride them in the narrow streets filled with people. We bought more focaccia for our lunch and Jannie reckons that she will have to start baking this when we get home. Jannie went and downloaded the blog without getting lost whilst I slept. We had got ourselves tickets to tonight's Puccini concert. This week has been a big week in Lucca as on Tuesday Puccini came home and his birth house was opened to the public. He was born here in 1858 and Italy claim him as one of their greatest sons. We went for a walk to establish just which church this concert was going to be held in and to save us a bit of time tonight. Had dinner, the girls will love this as it's whatever is in the fridge tonight.
We set of for the concert at 6.40pm and got to the church in plenty of time so I marched us down the aisle to the very front row. This is the only permanent concert in the world, meaning that every night of the year with no interruptions there is a concert with leading professional Italian performers and always different programmes. We didn't go too much on the church floor as it shook a bit when we were sitting down and people were walking past us and reminded us of Christchurch. Tonight's show has a Soprano, a delightful young lady - so slim with a big voice, a Bass, a big young man with a deep voice and a Pianoforte guy who was brilliant. We didn't know if it was quite our cup of tea but anyway we were here and the show started. Each night they play Puccini and Mozart. Duet first up and was ok. The girl came on and sang Puccini's Gianni Schicchi - O Mio Babbino Caro - after her applause I said to Jannie well that almost made me cry and I think that there were watery eyes all round. The pianist played Puccini's Monon Lescaut - how anyone can write music like that let alone someone else play it amazes me. The concert finished and we got an encore and we marched out of the church and Jannie said that this was a lovely way to finish our stay in Lucca. Hot water and lemon and panforte for supper and off to bed. Have to be up early in the morning as a taxi is coming for us at 9am to take us and our bags to the car (which is parked outside the walled city). We are off to San Remo on the coast which will take 3-4 hours on the autostrade. Last big car trip thank goodness!
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