Our last day in Lucca and we decided to do the Wall. As it was a Saturday, so did the entire township. Apparently “doing the wall” is like “doing the tan”. The same sort of people wearing the same sort of lycra that they shouldn’t.

doing the Wall

The wall itself, in its current form is a 16^th Century replacement of a 12^thC early wall built over the Roman wall of 100BC that was laid on the Etruscan foundations of about 400BC. Got that?

Why it is particularly fascinating is that it reflects the earliest intact wall that was altered to defend against cannon.

Prior to this, walls were steep, crenulated and in the end abandoned in the face of the invader for the defensive Keep.

As Ian wandered the trenches in the battlefields of Ypres, Gallipoli and Troy, did he ponder the advances in defensive science?

Prior to the invention of gunpowder, conventional military wisdom stated you need one man on the wall, per metre of wall to defend d against 10 invaders. In a small town like Lucca, with a perimeter wall of about 6 kms. they would have needed an enormous force to spread along it.

The invention of the Bastion and Embrasure meant that you confined you defensive force in a small area that protruded out from the wall, build earthworks and moats that funneled attackers towards an undefended stretch of the wall, which your defenders could then fire along from carefully protected bastions.  This meant that a handful of well trained men could  defend hundreds of metre of wall.

The Bastion and Embrasure

Evil military device to allow
rapid troop movement along the wall

As I was explaining this carefully and in great detail to Ilze she slumped to the ground, eyes rolled back and began snoring, I was forced to utter those dreadful words, “fabrics on sale” to revive her.

Pretending to ignore this fascinating piece of military history, we strolled along with the populace, gazing inwards to the town, and found several more museums and churches to visit. Ummm.

The town inside the wall

After a late lunch we found another tower to climb, that’s all I needed, and watched the sun set across the Tuscan hills.  Actually that bit wasn’t so bad except I deleted the photos before I copied them.

Just another tower in Tuscany

Then back to Ilze’s favorite Tuscan restaurant for another dose of terrific pasta. I was settling in with  a second glass of wine when Ilze realized that the owner and I were watching Juve v Lazio on the TV. Nil all at half time.  We then left to walk home and pack for Rome.

God I hope Rome is flat.

Peter.

PS. Ilze has just mentioned something about seven hills