Traveling in Tuscany

After leaving Florence we went to Lucca and stayed in a villa on the edge of town and visited the old walled city and other towns in the area.  \This bridge from medieval times was on the road to Barga.  

On the way back, (Barga does not make the blog) we stopped by the very scenic town of Bagni de Lucca on the Lima river.

Apparently they did not get along with their neighbors back in the day as the city was well fortified, replete with very old timey watch towers, which despite my aversion to being a knight in shining armor, I really liked. Old coats of arms once decorated the little arch things. Back in the day I bet it looked good. This was part of a row of battlements along the river bank.

The main city plaza, well THE city plaza was also a market place, guy with camper trailer to my left was selling flowers. The plaza was an ideal place for a late morning cup of coffee.  

More city walls, Italian flag, green, white red vertical colors, and arch to a bridge.

Across the bridge, an old apartment building that if you notice in the next to top floor left window someone was shaking out laundry or something.

Just a not so old bridge we passed on the road, built in 1847 or some recent year like that. Most of what we were looking at was 10th to 16th century, and often built on Roman and Etruscan ruins.

Lucca was a rather large town that maintained its city walls and gates, this was one of them. City streets were narrow and relatively haphazard by my reckoning.

Within the gate, there were several mechanisms to thwart invaders, note the locking teeth on the wooden inner gate that could be lowered as a first barrier.  It was not the only one. The moat had been filled to make a drive, but was maintained around part of the permitter.

The city walls were still thick and could take a pounding from cannon fire and provided for very good fields of fire for defenders to give attackers quite a difficult time. That is of course if the sun did not bother the defenders as much as it apparently does Charles, Linda and Patt. The sergeant of the guard better put them on lookout duty facing west in the morning and east in the evening.