SECRET, SACRED, SCIENTIFIC, UNLIKELY. AROUND THE GREEN OF LUCCA.
A green route, within the walls of a city. Possible if the city is this ancient , Roman, Medieval and Renaissance village, which still jealously guards within its walls a number of unexpected green “locus amoenus”.
A route to be traveled in silence, some ‘contemplative, some curious, whose companion guide can only be Santa Zita, the “little” Saint of the flowers from Lucca, the patron saint of housewives, consierges and bakers.
Church St. Frediano is famous for the richness of the decoration of the facade, a large mosaic on a gold background depicting Christ ascended to Heaven accompanied by two angels and the twelve apostles. Inside the church, however, it preserves an equally important treasure: the naturally mummified body of Santa Zita.
Zita was a girl of humble origins, born in Monsagrati and sent to work in Lucca at the age of twelve in the service of an important family of Lucca, the Fatinellis. Dedication to work and kindness were his best features, which were manifested with the affection and help, even material, that the Saint used to offer to poor people. One day, discovered by the master while on his way to distribute bread to the poor, as always hidden in her big apron, she was asked what she wore and said, “flowers and leaves”. When she had to open the apron to show the contents, colored bouquets of flowers and wild herbs came out. He died April 27, 1278, the day when it celebrates the memory.
Santa Zita is a Saint beloved by people from Lucca, whose devotion is renewd each year at the date of his death, when in the picturesque Amphitheater square there is an exhibition and market of flower, and the adjacent Piazza San Frediano becomes a colorful garden. In these days of celebration is a must to taste the traditional cake of “erbi”, made with beets and wild herbs of wich are rich fields and hills surrounding the city in late winter, and give to friends a bouquet of fragrant daffodils, the traditional flowers of Santa Zita, that you can pick on the hills, or buy at the flower market.
Treading the pavement that maybe Santa Zita had traveled many times in her life, from San Frediano, you walk to the left, up to a street which then returns on the busy street Fillungo. It’s via Fontana, and here there is the house where Zita has lived and worked throughout his life. Place out of sight of most, situated in one of the many narrow “secondary” streets in the city, where not overlook the shops, where the noise of passangers arrive choked from the streets nearby and you can enjoy the quiete. Close to the door of the palace Fatinelli, nestled in the wall, the old well, where even the saint went to draw water for his masters and for the poor dear. The well is topped by a shrine with a bas-relief of the seventeenth century that represents the consierge in act of turning water to a beggar.
There is plenty of secret places in Lucca, and can be discovered only if one moves in the shadow, in those precisely, less traveled roads, being careful to make out with discretion the treasures that lie behind every gate: small secret gardens decorate large palaces, a luxury in the compact space of the old town of Lucca only visitable in the second half of May, during the day “open gardens”. Always welcoming is the small garden Minutoli-Tegrimi, opposite the entrance to the palace Orsetti, home of the municipality of Lucca, in Loreto street. There, hidden by a high wall that surrounds it on three sides, and protected by the other side by the walls of houses, is this little green corner, visible from the street only trough three railings windows and the entrance door. Here, in the shadow of four tall trees, there are flower bushes, large pots well cured, an old well and a walkway protected by a pergola of wisteria that runs all around the green. Four benches allow visitors to stop and contemplate this piece of nature, maybe in the company of a good book and timid cats who take advantage of the quiet town and meet here to doze.
The biggest and richest gardens of the town obviously belonged to the residences of the most influential families, whose power was also manifested thanks to the care of their green spaces. The scenic garden of Palazzo Pfanner, Baroque style, visible even from the Walls. A large octagonal pool, eighteenth-century statues, corridors of hedges, groves of bamboo, pine trees, and many flowers: peonies, hydrangeas, begonias, roses, geraniums, camellias and an ancient limonaia well maintained.
The second garden not to be missed is the largest park of Villa Bottini, which extends all around the villa and is surrounded by a high wall of stone on which there are many windows and three doors. At the front of the villa a wide avenue divides the lawn in two flower beds with two fountains and shaded by towering trees. Behind the villa design is repeated between large flower beds and trees, arranged around a large octagonal pool. In the summer months the garden house the outdoor cinema: every night you will be able to appreciate art films in the cool of the park.
Speaking about secret gardens you can not forget that Lucca, the “city of the 99 churches”, was also full of convents and monasteries, gathered around cloisters and courtyards, isolated and well hidden, for the leisure and the quiet of the religious.
Some of themcan be visited nowadays, as the cloister convent constructed in XIII century, one time oboad of the Servit monk, which now houses the public library “Agorà“, and is a meeting place for young students. Even the medieval monastery of San Micheletto encloses a large garden, surrounded by the porch of what was once the convent of friars. Another one is the complex of San Francesco, with the large church and the Franciscan monastery, returned accessible after recently restored and used for exhibitions, shows, concerts, conferences. Within the complex, you can walk in the silence of three contiguous cloisters, until you reach the large open space of the new gardens, with modern fountain with water features and a space dedicated to children.
From the “elegant green” to “scientific green”, here’s the highlight of this itinerary of Lucca which is undoubtedly the botanical garden, the most precious garden of Lucca, jealously hidden within the walls of city too. Two hectares of colors, smells, sounds, which allow you to travel around the world, thanks to the ancient collections from distant countries, and to discover the environmental treasures of Lucca, thanks to the many examples of local flora, represented in various natural environments reconstructed on the “mound” and in the “pond”. Here, as the story goes, there are the rest of the body of Lucida Mansi, Lucca noblewoman who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his beauty, and that with the full moon is still possible to see on the water the reflection of his face.
The last stages of this journey through the streets of the city are two “improbable green “, which are located precisely where plants are not usual to grow, on the top of two important distinctive symbols of the city. The Guinigi Tower, the tower with trees, is one of the late medieval tower on top of which was made a hanging garden with flower beds and seven oak trees.
The walkway of the city walls, undoubtedly the most representative monument of the city: a ring of four kilometers, about twelve meters high, crowned by the shadow of the foliage of majestic trees, some other younger trees, interspersed with ten spacious bulwarks, real gardens above the city. Limes, oaks, sycamores, oaks, elms, poplar…on each curtain there is a family of different trees, in respect of the variety. Walking, cycling, going with the rickshaw or carriage, running,you can enjoy the quiet that gives you this “ring” green, and then you can see from this privileged perspective, some of theinexhaustible treasures that the city agrees only with more careful and curious observers.