Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Our 7th Day Trip: Lucca

After about an hour long bus ride, our first stop of the day began at the beautiful, Villa Reale Di Marlia and the surrounding garden spaces.  The quant Villa dates back as early as the 16th century and is surrounded by lush green gardens, open green lawns, water features and statues.  Being the only two landscape architecture students of the group, Drew Cheatham and I were especially excited about this visit.  

Pictures of the Villa: 



Pictures of the surrounding garden spaces:


This picture is of the “garden theatre,” which was my favorite part of the landscape.   In this space, yew hedges were used to mock the curtains, seating, foot lights and stage of a theatre. 

More pictures of the surrounding garden spaces: 



We spent the entire morning here because there was so much to see! 
Here are a few sketches:

Sketch by Graham Sinclair

Sketch by Heather Nelson

Sketch by Heather Nelson 

Afterwards, we hopped on the bus again and made are way to our second and final stop: the historical district of Lucca.  Compared to the highly populated cities of Rome and Florence, Lucca was a very quiet town.  It was a unique place, full of old churches, little piazzas, towers and family businesses.    

We were able to explore the city a good bit and see the following places:

Duomo San Martino 

Piazza e Chiesa di San Michele

Torre Guinigi

Piazza Anfiteatro

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