May 15, 2016 - Chianti Wine Country Tour & Lucca

Original, we planned to visit Cinque Terre on this day.  However, due to our concern of possible rain in Cinque Terre, we decided to switch the tour to visit Chianti wine country instead.  

We planned to visit 5 most famous villages in Chianti namely Greve in Chianti,  Panzano in Chianti, Castellina in Chianti, Radda in Chianti and Gaiole in Chianti.  Since Greve in Chianti has been considered as the gateway to Chianti, therefore, our plan calls for visiting it first.  The weather in Chianti was very nice, the drive to Chianti was very scenery, and it supposes to be a pleasant drive with a lot of wonderful hillside grape and olive farms. However, we noticed that there were a lot of bicycle riders on the road and they were ignorantly took major part of the road.  First we thought that Italian bicycle riders are very rude and unfriendly to tourists like us. However, as a tourist the only thing we could do was drive slowly and give the right of way to them.  When we got close to Greve in Chianti, we ran into road block and was told that roads were closed for a bicycle event and the only thing we can do was to park our car at roadside and to walk about 2KM to town for sightseeing. Since everybody was doing the same, so we followed.  After 2KM walk, we found out that the whole town was closed for this bicycle event called Giro d’Italia 2016.  We managed to walk around the town casually.  

Then, we decided to go to the next village Panzano in Chianti.  We encountered the same road closure issue.  After a couple of detours, we finally ran into one of the event staff who told us that all 5 villages we tried to visit would be closed for that day. 

Until later in the day when we got back to our hotel, then we found this bicycle event was Tour of Italia 2016 (the 2nd largest bicycle tour in Europe, only after the Tour of France).  This is one of the issues when you plan a DIY trip in a foreign country.  We did not read local newspapers and watch local TVs (they were in Italian), therefore, we did not know this potential obstacle.

However, we did have a chance to see the beautiful scenery we were looking for - the grape and olive fields on the hill side.  It is the most beautiful scenery to us and most of tourists are looking for this type of scenery in Chianti.

It was almost noon when we found out all road closures were due to Tour of Italia 2016.  We made a decision of switching the afternoon schedule to visit Lucca.  It is about 2 hours drive from where we were, however, it was the best alternative at that situation.

The main attraction in Lucca is the Renaissance walled old town. The walls surrounding the old town remain intact, even as the city expanded and modernized. Once the walls lost their military importance, they became a pedestrian promenade and people just stroll on top of the walls for a relaxed walk.  Lucca old town’s cobbled streets, handsome piazzas and shady promenades make it a perfect destination to explore by foot. Lucca is commonly referred to as the city of one hundred churches because of its large number of religious buildings.  

Lucca’s attractions include Church of San Michele in Foro, Guinigi Tower, Piazza Napoleone, and Duomo di San Martino.  After we parked the car, we walked into the old town from the street of Via Vittorio Emanuele ll and ran into Church of St. Catherine which was restored and maintained by FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano, usually referred to in English as the Italian National Trust). It is a great-little baroque jewel, rare example in Lucca of religious architecture.  There were FAI members there (most of them were high school students) to offer free tour to introduce the artworks and the restoration history of this church.  These students took turns to explain each piece of the artworks and building structure to us and even took us to the top of the dome to have a closer look of the ceiling artwork of the dome.  They also explained how the lighting coming from to allow people see the ceiling artwork from the ground floor and how the structure of the artwork is a little bit different to present a real proportion of the body part (the lag and arm are actually shorter).  It was very interesting. 

Later, we visited Piazza Napoleone, the Duomo di San Martino and Church of San Michele in Foro.  Then the rain started again.  After walking in the rain in this beautiful old town, we decided to have a coffee break to get out of the rain.  Luckily, the rain did not last long.

After our coffee rest, we walked back to visit the Guinigu Tower. The tower dates from the 1300's when a number of wealthy families were building bell towers within the walls of Lucca as status symbols. This tower is one of the few remaining buildings within the city walls. Its main characteristic is its garden in the sky on the roof top of the tower. You can have a wonderful view of the whole Lucca from the top.  There is an entrance fee for getting up to the top with 229 steps.  We went up there and had a much appreciated view of Lucca.