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| Ponte du Diablo |
The last of our three potential house purchase areas was the valleys up behind Lucca, where prices seemed reasonable and the landscape to our liking. Having come this far we felt we should at least have a look at them, so we headed out of Lucca. The landscape is a bit green and treed compared to the picture-book ideal of Tuscany, though we are definitely in Tuscany here, but all it takes is a few cypresses and it is very Tuscan. The big attraction of Borgo a Mozzano is the Ponte du Diablo, an excellent mediaeval bridge with a very large arch. Borgo didn’t look like a great town, so we simply passed on through up the valley to Bagni di Lucca, a spa town.
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| Ponte du Diablo |
It was very pretty, and quite alpine in feel in a way. The first part was a busy little square by a bridge, then a gap before the main town, past some lovely big buildings including a mill being converted into 44 apartments. The main town had a pleasant feel, and if we hadn’t already bought, we could have been happy here, though most of the cheaper places were in little hamlets away from the town.
It was still quite early by the time we had got back to the car and had a quick lunch from the patisserie/gelateria in the little square, so we thought a visit to the beach might be in order. I’d looked up the free beach, not being willing to fork out 30€ each to sit on a beach, and set the GPS on the task. We ended up driving past Pisa, and could see the leaning tower over the fields. The beach at Torre del Lago Puccini was great. Off to the end of the 30km of paid beaches is a nature park and the beachfront is free, and was a busy spot with plenty of weekend trippers enjoying the sun and surf, as did we (well not the surf bit). Heading back we passed within 50m of the Pisa tower/cathedral/baptistery compound, but opted to leave a visit until Alastair arrives.
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| 1850s bridge, Fornoli |
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| Art Nouveau house, Lucca |
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| Art Nouveau house, Lucca |
