Lucca with Luke

Last friday I decided to attempt to conquer the city of Lucca. I should have hit up wikipedia before I left, it would have appropriately informed me that Lucca was a target of many attacking armies in the past and Lucca had proved to be a very difficult victory and a stubborn enemy. Luckily for me I was only looking to conquer some pizza and gelato (conduct a siege 101: attack their food supply). Given my recent adventures with traveling to Lucca i'll address what I know you all are thinking. YES I did make it to Lucca and no I didn't buy a ticket to Siena to see if it would take me to Lucca (it did cross my mind). On this trip my buddy Luke came with me. Which was a nice change of pace, i've been doing alot of my day trips alone for a wide range of reasons. Like my friends are too hungover and don't want to go; or my friends stayed out too late and didn't wake up till 2 in the afternoon, or they don't have many money left because they spent it all at the bar last night. Like i said many DIFFERENT reasons. But it was nice to have luke come along, we both agreed it adds a little more to a trip when you share it with someone (looking at you Henry Thoreau).

We hit the city about 2. Luke (Alaska native, Colo St.) had class till 11:30 and the train ride was longer than we thought ( started have siena flashbacks!). The first thing you notice about Lucca is actually its most definable quality as a city. Its fully intact renaissance era fortified wall. And it is IMPRESSIVE. The wall is easily 30 to 40 feet high (covert that to meters, quick!) and about the same in thickness. You can rent bikes and ride on top of the wall, which many people were doing. The interesting thing we saw was most people taking their afternoon walk (very very common Italian activity) on the wall rather than in the streets of the city. We also thought it funny that the wall was such an unique thing in our modern time, but it was an every day thing for the cities residence. Like everyone has to pass through a giant fortified wall to get to the dentist... maybe in the 1400's. Yes they had dentists then, but it was different. No cool toys or free floss after your routine check up.

For some reason this picture uploaded werid


The city has since expanded outside of the walls to create a sort of a modern suburb of the walled city. But from what Luke and I  could tell all the money is inside the walls. There were much nicer cars and shops inside the walls. Luke and I got some pizza to give us some exploring fuel ( consider yourself conquered Luccanites!). The city proved to be a very beautiful city. There were many tall towers within the walls connected to beautiful old churches (church building used to be a popular hobby in italy, even the pope does it!). However the wall was still the main attraction. It was awesome. There were tunnels to be explored, old fortifications and awesome views of the surrounding countryside. I have committed to a return trip to Lucca in the spring to get a different look. There was a lot vegetation that was still in winter mode that will be awesome in the spring. So i'll make sure to update you on my return to Lucca (they shall welcome me as their pizza eating conqueror).

I know its been a while since I updated. I had midterms this past week, which proved to be busier than I thought. My creative writing mid term piece finished at 19 pages, i WILL kill my professor if i get a bad grade. My brother Marcus is on his way to Florence now to do spring break with me. I'll have my computer with me so expect some posts. Maybe some "day of" posts!?!?!? Enjoy the pictures. Hung my camera in a tree and used the self timer to get that picture of Luke and I. We work hard.

Songs:

Stereo Sun - Lupe Fiasco (unreleased)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZVT2CGmQZg

Shout out to Fishy Tunes for posting Stereo Sun, great song. Oh and by the way, I totally the creator of Fishytunes.net. I got connects in the game!

City Kids - OCD: Moosh and Twist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDpp1zWuEU8

These Kids (17 years old) are awesome. Straight hip-hop. The white kid twist makes Mac Miller look like a punk (you too sammy adams!)