ITALY TRIP - The Hot Walls of Lucca

As a tourist, I'm conscientious about the "must-see"s.  

Don't want to get home and sound as if I hadn't really been to the place I claim.

So in Lucca it was a thing to walk the city walls.  

"One of the pleasures of Lucca is strolling along the ramparts - the magnificent city walls, whose tree-lined promenade offers some entrancing views of the city."

The guidebook also suggested the best time was during the midday break when shops were shut.

We set off enjoying the  astonishing wall-top boulevard lined with limes and plane trees.  It was punctuated by the beautiful works of a local sculptor, on the theme, Family Tree.  

"This is lovely."

At each turn in the way, there was a mighty bastion.  We could see down into the elegant garden of the Palazzo Pfanner - once used to film Portrait of a Lady.

"Really enjoyable."

But at 35 degrees of heat, our initial delight soon turned to grim determination to reach each next bastion.

About a quarter of the way round, I finally admitted, "You know, I'm not enjoying this!"
"Neither am I," Nigel agreed immediately.

And that was all it took for us to descend and slink off to a cafe.

And later, if somebody says, "Lucca, eh? So did you walk the walls?", we'll say, "Oh yes!"  

After all, there's no need to give a percentage of wall walked.