Tuscany Driving, Part I

Lucca is our home base for exploring Tuscany.  As a gift to my parents while traveling, I ordered Frommer’s “25 Great Drives in Tuscany and Umbria” from Amazon to be sent home, and in doing so, I unknowingly signed myself up for much driving.  The book is nice in that outlines possible routes to take by car and what to look for at the various locations; however, places always have a tendency of looking closer together on a map.  In preparation for these drives, my parents also brought a Garmin navigation system.  The sentiment was good, but without the built in navigation system in the car, the Garmin may have caused us some trouble.  We used the Garmin for only the first couple days after which we start realizing that the routes it is providing us with are not very direct.  We feel that we are spending too much time in fields of grains or sunflowers making small, confusing turns on narrow roads.  And each time we would miss a turn, we would get the grumpy reminder that the Garmin had to recalculate.  However, once we started using the built in navigation, we put grumpy Garmin to rest.

Bridge near Lucca

For our first drive, we roughly follow Frommer’s Tour 3: Garfagnana and the Apuan Alps.  Although our main stops throughout the day include Bagni di Lucca and its famous nearby bridge, Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, and Pietrasanta, the roads between the stops are the biggest highlight.  Never being a stretch of flat terrain, we are constantly alternating between bridge, tunnel, bridge, tunnel.  It reminds me of the drives in Sicily.  The bridges and tunnels aren’t small either.  The only places where the tunnels turned to switchbacks is near the marble deposits, and here the famous white Carrera Marble surrounds us.  From the mountains to the sea, today, we had a chance to experience small town Italy and explore the countryside between our meals and gelato breaks.

Marina di Pietrasanta

Firenze

Firenze

With Lucio Dalla (listen here) playing through the car speakers, Mom, Dad, and I set off for Florence.  After the adrenaline rush of driving through the city and finding parking, we go straight to the Galleria degli Uffizi.   In one building, we are able to enjoy the works of Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Botticelli, Giotto, and all of the teenage mutant turtles (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael).  There is so much to see that so many other great paintings and sculptures get lost in the mix.  There is a bit of excitement getting into the museum because we have come to Florence at the peak of tourist season, but it ends up being well worthwhile.

Although only a short visit to a city that offers so much, we fill it with highlights.  We climb Giotto’s Campanile on the Piazza del Duomo and get an expansive view of the city from above.  We admire the Ponte Vecchio, Florence’s most famous bridge crossing the Arno at its narrowest point.  We have a big dinner at Gusta Pizza.  Dad finds an excellent souvenir, a copy of Leonardo’s perpetual clock.  And all of this despite a threatening drizzle all day.

Florence, the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, was one of the political, economic, and cultural centers of Europe between the 14th and 16th centuries.  The language of Florence is now accepted as what we know as Italian thanks to famous authors such as Dante.  Florentine money was responsible for the development of industry all over Europe, and Florentine locals financed governments and projects including the papacy not too far away.  It was home to the Medici’s, who had international influence and were one of the world’s most important families.  And this is just a start of what makes Florence so unique.