If it's not clear what I'm doing, or it looks like I'm just randomly wandering around Italy, let me explain: the idea is to walk from home to Assisi, stringing together a series of traditional pilgrimage routes to cover the whole way.
I started out on the Via della Costa, did a day and a half on the Via Francigena, and then spent a week on the Via del Volto Santo. That got me to Lucca. I then went home and took a week off, due to a combination of rainy weather and work commitments, but now I'm back in business!
I took an early morning train to Lucca and resumed my walk right where I left off a week ago: at the cathedral. I followed a roundabout route across the city centre to pass by some of the sights I was too tired to check out a week ago, after walking all day. Mostly churches... Though all except one were still closed, and the streets were deserted except for street-sweepers and high school students on their way to school.
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| Lucca: The Cathedral (San Martino) |
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| Lucca: San Michele |
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| Lucca: San Salvatore next to the hostel where I stayed last time I walked to Lucca |
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| Lucca: San Frediano |
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| Lucca: the piazza built on the foundations of the Roman amphitheatre |
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| Lucca: San Pietro |
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| Leaving Lucca through Porta San Jacopo |
The Cammino di San Jacopo in Toscana leaves the city of Lucca through Porta San Jacopo - naturally! It then follows Acqua Calda Canal, built a century or so ago to bring water to the city's early industries, some of which I passed along the way: interesting and colourful specimens of "industrial archaeology" such as the Cucirini Cantoni Coats plant, built astride the canal.
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| Lammari: San Jacopo & Maria |
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| Lammari: San Cristoforo |
The most beautiful of the churches in this section is San Cristoforo in Lammari, built in the year 812!
It was tough walking on asphalt all morning, and so I was glad when the trail finally left the modern road system to follow the ancient Via Cassia Roman road. The old stones - Roman? Or Medieval? - bear the grooves made by centuries of cartwheels, spaced one Roman step apart: 1.48 metres. The grooves made passage on these rough stone roads easier, and so carts continued to be built with their wheels the same distance apart over the centuries... All the way down to the invention of the railway, when existing carts were adapted for use as railway cars and trams, resulting in the standard distance of railway tracks, which are still laid 1.435 metres apart - only a slight change since the days of the Roman chariots!
The path came out of the woods and into the town of Collodi - hometown of Pinocchio (or at least of the story's author, Carlo Collodi). The town celebrates its claim to fame with the world's tallest wooden Pinocchio (16 metres).
What intrigued me was the old town, Castello Collodi, that I could see perched high up above the newer town in the valley, with its industries, fancy villas & gardens and Pinocchio theme park. Seeing as I had to go uphill on the way out of town anyway, I went a little higher to explore the deserted streets of old Collodi.
From Collodi to Pescia I walked the Via della Fiaba, the Fairy-tale Way, among the olive trees, being prepared for harvest with nets stretching between the trees.
It began to sprinkle, but by the time I got my jacket on it had stopped. The sky was growing rather an ominously dark shade of grey, so I continued on my way into Pescia, where I found accommodation at Arcobaleno Toscano holiday flats, only 100 metres from the cathedral and appropriately named for this colourful city!
I had not been to Pescia before, so I showered quickly and headed out to discover the town. Or rather, the towns: Pescia is split in two by the river of the same name, with the centre of commerce and temporal power constructed on the right bank and the spiritual centre on the left bank, where I am staying. Just upstream of me is a hospital complex and then a former Franciscan monastery. The cloister has been converted into the city courthouse, but the church is still functional, and in fact was in function when I went in, and found myself in the middle of Mass. I stayed until the end of the service and then went into the sacristy to ask the reverend father for a stamp for my credenziale or pilgrim passport. It turned out it was his 89th birthday! In fine form for his age, the priest took me with him to the hospital chapel down the road, where he had a selection of stamps and let me choose my favourite! After this unplanned side trip I returned to the church of San Francesco to take a closer look at the painting of the Saint it contains: painted in 1235, only nine years after the death of Saint Francis, it is the oldest existing portrait of the saint, and therefore probably the most accurate!
Finally this pilgrimage is taking on the connotations of its theme, Saint Francis of Assisi!
Lucca - Pescia 29 km
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