Tuscany - Italy - page 149

regional specialties as pasta with wild hare, grilled boar, and zuppa Lucchese.
(Pastas run € 6- € 8, secondi € 8- € 12. A large beer is € 4.)
WHY YOU'RE HERE: THE TOP SIGHTS & ATTRACTIONS
If you go to Lucca, you are required to walk or bike along the Walls of Lucca

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.
It's one of the highlights of a trip to Tuscany. As you saunter along the 4km-wide
(2 1 ⁄ 2 -mile) green pathway 12m (40 ft.) above the city, you'll become a voyeur par
extraordinaire, peeking over villa walls into elaborate private gardens filled with
statuary, watching as the lucky citizens of this town stroll its broad avenues. Join
the locals in enjoying a picnic under plentiful shade trees, or let your kids frolic
in one of the many playgrounds lining the walls.
Although the only original remaining parts are a few arches and empty space,
the Anfiteatro Romano (Roman Amphitheater) is another impressive site, the
symmetrical oval of its shell surrounded by a crowd of medieval buildings. In
1830, city rulers cleared out the slums that stood in the middle of the piazza, cre-
ating the current scenic photo setting. The best way to see the amphitheater's out-
line is from the Torre Guinigi

(Via S. Andrea and Via Chiave d'Oro; % 0583-
48524; € 3.50; Mar-Sept 9am-7:30pm, Oct-Feb 10am-5:30pm), an odd 45m
(150-ft.) tree-topped tower sprouting up in the middle of town. The shade trees
on top were planted for the benefit of soldiers standing watch on hot summer
days. In addition to offering views of the amphitheater, the tower is a good van-
tage point from which to view the walls and the surrounding landscape.
If anything in town deserves studious attention, it is the Cattedrale di San
Martino

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(Piazza San Martino; % 0583-957068; free admission; daily
9:30am-5:45pm). Start with the facade, a perfect example of Pisan-Lucchese
Romanesque architecture, with its repeating dwarf rows of columns. The exterior
columns and atrium have interesting bas-relief carvings, including a labyrinth
symbolic of the difficult journey to salvation and scenes from the Bible. Those
over the doors, created in 1205, detail the life of St. Martin, a 4th-century saint
famous for sharing his cloak with a beggar (as well as the usual miracles of curing
lepers, and raising the dead, all recounted on the panels). The interior of the
church is a mishmash of styles, ranging from Gothic arches to Renaissance paint-
ings (including a Last Supper by Tintoretto) and 19th-century stained glass.
The cathedral's holiest relic is the caged wooden Volto Santo crucifix, said to
have been miraculously created by Nicodemus, an eyewitness to Jesus on the
cross. The crucifix reportedly arrived in Lucca in 782 by similarly miraculous
means: Set adrift on a raft to escape Muslim marauders, the statue beached near
a small Italian village, where the local bishop, following a vision, put the crucifix
on a cart and let oxen take it wherever God meant it to rest. Since its arrival in
Lucca, the Volto Santo has been a source of pride for the city, culminating in the
September 13 festival in which the crucifix is paraded through town. Art histori-
ans think the carving, with its Byzantine and Indian influences, may have been a
12th-century copy of an 11th-century copy of a Syrian statue from the 8th cen-
tury (whew!).
The cathedral's other highlight is the 1407 tomb of Ilaria Carretto Guinigi, a
stunning 26-year-old woman whose beauty was immortalized in an unusually
naturalistic manner (note the graceful flow of her robes) by sculptor Jacopo della

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