I left Levanto at about 10am, and drove about 2 hours to my next destination. After spending so much time on the coast in the Cinque Terre area, it was time for a change of scenery! My destination was a place called Lucca, that I didn't know much about but that I had read a little about in a guide somewhere at some point and had decided to put it on my map. I'm so glad I did!
I got to Lucca a bit before midday, and parked in the camper parking that was outside the town a little. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but I quickly realised that maybe it wasn't, as the town was surrounded by a very solid wall that had very few entrances! I had set my maps to go to the Tourist Office so that I might pick up a map, and ended up walking in the incredibly hot sunshine for a LONG way. Of course, when I got to the Tourist Information, it was closed! Fuming, I took a photo of a sign that showed the historic walk around town, and started off on that, but quickly lost my way. But actually, I decided this was OK because, as I looked around, I realised that it didn't really matter where I went in Lucca, it was just seriously gorgeous!
One of the places that I wanted to use a map to get to was actually really easy to find on account of it being rather tall! Torre Guinigi was 45m tall and had 232 steps to the top.... and I absolutely had to go up there! I like high places for viewpoints and to orient myself rather than their views so much, but this one was special - on the top, there were trees growing! Like ancient holm oaks from medieval times! How awesome is that?! So yes, I HAD to go and see them for myself.
I decided it was probably time for lunch after all those stairs, and set to finding a restaurant! It was quite late for lunch at that point but I managed to find one outside of a touristy area that was serving lunch. So I sat down to a big bowl of pasta and a glass of wine... to keep me going of course!
Next, I wanted to explore the old town and set off to find the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro. You might not be able to see it from my photos which are shot at ground level, but if you look this place up, the buildings are built in an oval shape, as they are built on top of and following the lines of an old Roman amphitheatre! The current buildings date back only to the 1830's, but the theatre below dates back to the 1st century AD and is buried about 3m underneath. Parts of the buildings such as vaults and arches are, however, incorporated into the current buildings. It was a really nice area to wander in, and there was a market happening while I was there too!
From there, I decided to just get lost. As long as I was walking in the right direction, at some point I figured that I would come across the walls, and could just then follow them to a gate to find my car. So I spent a very happy few hours walking around this lovely place.
I made it back to the camper about 2pm and made a snap decision to go to Florence that evening. It was a Thursday, so I thought there would be more chance of getting a camp site nearby without booking rather than on a Friday or Saturday, which were much harder days at popular sites. I also wanted to stay three nights, so it was definitely worthwhile to get there outside of a weekend day/Friday afternoon.
I drove another hour to the campsite I'd chosen, who thankfully had room for me. They also had a load of Contiki travellers staying there, which made the bathroom situation a little interesting. But I chose my place, set up camp and settled in for the night.