What is there not to like about Lucca? It didn't push itself to the forefront on of the world stage... it is not that showy... posturing style of town. But take a quick look at European history and you will see that Lucca has been making consistent contributions worthy of praise.
Did you know that Lucca was the town selected by Rome's first triumvirate to formalise their power-sharing arrangements? As you will recall, the members of the triumvirate were Rome's greatest generals... big Julie... flashy Pompey .. and rich Crassus. They didn't want the odium of being the ones to bring the Roman Republic to a close... but they didn't want to leave major decisions in the hands of cretins who didn't understand that what was best for Rome happened to be the same as what was best for them! Anyway, it was a feather in the hat of Lucca to be selected as the location for the final meeting that renewed the solidarity of the triumvirate.
Right through the middle-ages, Lucca was at the forefront of building engineering. It has 3 churches still standing that were the marvels of their day. It has had its share of saints and sinners... people who generate good stories. I liked Lucca making a saint of a sweet young girl who developed the habit of stealing food from her employer to give to starving street people. The story I heard was that she was caught in the act of handing out the stolen food. Her employer pressed charges... the street people said she was only giving them flowers... not food at all. The employer did a stake-out watching her the next night as she stole the food... put it in her basket... go into the side alleys... and start distributing to the street people. Agents of the employer swooped upon the sweet lass... hah hah now we've got you... they grabbed the basket... opened it up... and found flowers! The citizens of Lucca thought it a miracle. Jesus had turned loaves into fishes... but here was a girl who could turn loaves into flowers... great story.
In recent times, Lucca has given the world Puccini. Today, we saw his place of birth... the organ and the church where he refined his basic music skills... and saw some fine statues of him. If we wanted to part with €20, we could have heard the town's unemployed musicians murder some of his exquisite pieces.
We chose instead to savour some of Lucca's great food. The supermarket is superb. We stood in front of the delli counter selecting our evening meal from the amazing variety of food on offer. It was great entertainment to observe Italians showing their passion for food in the care and precision given to delli staff regarding the purchases they made. We were delighted at our selections of salads for our evening meal. By way of contrast... while we studied the delli offerings, we had a group of 4 USA citizens spend the same period of time deciding whether to buy two loaves of white bread for their peanut butter sandwiches... or just the one loaf... talk about stereotypes!
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