Out and About, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy

Pinocchio is one of the characters on the carousel. The story of "Pinocchio," is known the world over and was set not too far from here. In fact, a Pinocchio amusement park is located in the town of Collodi.



Part of this street, Corso Garibaldi, is closed to vehicles and vendors set up their tents on weekends. It is lined with flowering magnolias.  It is particularly wide as street go in this town.  Most of the narrow streets are about 25 feet wide (based on my unscientific eight paces) and support, foot, bicycle, dogs, auto, and bus traffic in a frenetic dance that somehow manages to avoid harming anyone. The secret seems to be: no sudden movements, no direction changes without a pause to look, and most of all, maintain situational awareness at all times.



Chilly or not, outdoor dining for lunch is much desired......and dogs are always welcome at table.



If you are located in a shady alleyway, most diners opt to go inside.



A silhouette of Matteo Civitali, an Italian sculptor, architect, painter, and engineer from Lucca in the late 1400's looks out on the Piazza San Michele.

Atop the wall, the paved path, graveled path, tree line, and dirt path all contribute to making the wall top the place to go for exercise, to see and be seen, or just to amble aimlessly.  The wall, about 30 feet high and 60 feet wide at the top completely encloses Lucca in its 2.5 mile circumference. The tower and church are part of the San Frediano facility.

There are countless small bars in Lucca that serve drinks and a lite snack.  Somehow they all have enough business to go around. I expect they are hoping for winter to end and more tourists to visit.