Day 29 - Lucca to Altopascio - Monday July 13, 2015

Before we went to bed last night we read the route notes for today, which said: visit Lucca and transfer by train to Altopascio. ‘The walk is monotonous, across a very inhabited and industrialized area, entirely on pavement. A short ride by train allows you more time in Lucca, which is a beautiful town, and also in Altopascio, which was an important stop on the via Francigena because pilgrims needed help crossing a marshy and dangerous area.’

21km of walking mostly on asphalt did not appeal to me. Plus, Lucca in Italy was like a Burgos or Leon along the Camino in Spain, a city with a lot of interesting things to see.

I sort of hated to waste a day off on a 21km day, but the logic was indisputable. Plus, walking all that distance on roads after two 30km days in a row and a sore foot was not an appealing option.

We slept in until 8am, put on our city clothes, and had a lovely breakfast. The hotel was full of people from the UK that had come to hear Elton John.

We then wandered around Lucca for the rest of the morning. One of the first things that strikes you about Lucca is its monumental tree lined walls, which encircle the city completely. The present perimeter was built in the 16^th century and is the fourth, the first being Roman, then Medieval, then a 15^th century one. The walls are 4200 meters long, 30 meters thick, and 2 meters high. The heart of the city is built on an almost uninterrupted series of piazzas and churches connected by a web of narrow streets and irregular alleys which open unexpectedly onto important works of art.

We visited the church of San Paolino, saw the tower with the oak trees on to

the clock tower, visited the oro botanico (garden), walked along the perimeter, and then stumbled upon the Cathedral. We asked to get our credenzas stamped at the cathedral and they got us in for free! Walking 600km to get there was worth something!

The centuries old San Martino Cathedral is a masterpiece of Romanesque art. 

The first thing that struck me was the beautiful blue in the frescoed vaulted ceiling. It reminded me of the Church of the United Nations in Israel, beside the Garden of Gethsemane. There was a painting in the Cathedral of the last supper by Tintoretto that was simply oozing with passion and spirituality, and we saw the ‘Volto santo’, a wooden crucifix said to be sculpted by Nicodemus, who received the order to carve the sculpture in a vision. Before the work was finished, he fell asleep and in a dream he saw angels and Christ himself descending from heaven and carving the face of the sculpture. When Nicodemus awoke, the sculpture was complete and carried the true likeness of Christ. The legend says that it also arrived on a boat with no sailors.

We were pretty much disoriented on where we were in the city at this point, having just wandered around for 3 hours, but when we walked away from the Piazza we ended up in Piazza Giglio, right in front of our hotel. We were a block from the cathedral!

We had lunch and then went to the train station and on to Altopascio. Altopascio was inhabited in Roman times, but gained importance for its hostel for via Francigena pilgrims, dating back to 1084. This formed the basis of the later Order of the Cavalieri (Knights) del Tau. We are staying in the hotel Cavalieri del Tau. We found the hotel without too much difficulty, passing the church of St. Jacob. 

It is quite a large city and fairly modern. We also passed the busy bakery on via Gavinana, and bought some biscotti and a small plum cake. The town is famous for its bread.

By this time we were both drenched with sweat, so came in to the hotel to relax and blog! Its 36 degrees here.

At around 5pm we went out sightseeing. We figured out how we would exit the city tomorrow morning, and then went back to the church of Santi Jacopo, which was annexed to the hostel. It was a medieval hospital complex, of which the cloister, the bell tower and parts of the façade and apse area are of the Romanesque style. There were about seven people in the church having mass. We then got a stamp in our credenzia for the church from the information office. Outside, people were setting up for a rock concert in the Piazza, and later the priest came out when they started doing a sound check. 

There was a photography exhibit set up next to the library which we viewed. Very interesting photographs! Next we walked past a Bavarian Beer Fest along a trail which miraculously led back to our hotel and supper. 

Very nice dinner, in a very restaurant.

The air conditioner is having a hard time coping with the heat – hopefully we will get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow is rated as strenuous (very heavy ascents and descents), 30km, and the forecast is 37 degrees. Oh joy!

It’s hard to get spiritual on this journey when it’s so hot and so hard. I’m going to try harder!

 Because life is a thrill that flies away, it’s a balance fully built on madness. Vasco Rossi