Bernardini Palace

12/5 Lucca – and tears from heaven
There was a thunderstorm right above us through the night, I was reading but Pete slept right through it though I don’t know how. With more rain expected we didn’t hurry out after breakfast – fresh fruit salad, cereal and yoghurt if you wanted it, very fresh warm croissants which I certainly did want as well as home-made plum jam, delicious. There are only three rooms, all beautifully kept, Giovanni is meticulous to say the least. He prepared breakfast, there are three small tables for two all set up nicely, good china, ample fresh coffee for the coffee drinkers. We didn’t make use of the little terrace as our stay was short but it would be lovely in summer.

We heard the word ‘andiamo’ many times on our trip four years ago and again with our tours today so now ‘andiamo’ with me and Pete on our walk through the streets to Cimitero della Citta di Lucca.

Our BnB is in a building from the 17th century, I’d like to know what the configuration was in those days but the ground floor has two apartments I think, and the other three floors three each, and the building is a bit like a tardis because it goes back and back. I’ve put in a couple of photos from our room, the rooftop next door, and the house round the back – or stone tower maybe? It makes me want to look inside all of these places. It’s a lovely place to stay and I’d recommend more than two days,

The streets are narrow with little piazzas, some with cafes and some not big enough for that. There are little shops, some quite upmarket, that give you a surprise in the middle of what seems to be a fairly broken-down area, but it’s only that everywhere is so old. In the photos you can see the ground floor windows have huge heavy grilles on them, stone doorsteps (some broken or worn) and some of the doors look very old too and I liked the look of the doorknocker.

We went through the Porta San Donato Vecchia, one of the main city gates; it's 15th century and what a surprise to find a big fireplace in big alcoves on each side of the road through the gatehouse (and the cars drive very fast through here too, a big scary) and a couple of frescoes as well as a few more heavy metal grilles. The walls are 4.2km long, surrounded by well-kept wide green grass, and we walked for a few hundred meters to the cemetery.

The reason for our small adventure was a quest for Andy whose friend Benny from Bangkok days sadly died of a brain aneurysm aged 25, his family came from Lucca and Benny is buried here. But we knew the cemetery is huge, no information on line, so in case we didn’t have any luck we lit a candle for Benny at the cathedral on Thursday night. We asked an old man at the big cemetery gate if there was an office but he only spoke Italian, there was nothing obvious so we went in, thinking we might find one inside. As said, it’s huge with two-storey blocks for ashes, big old and new mausoleums (I don’t know if that’s the correct word but we’ll go with it), new and old graves, all very well cared for with trees and lots of fresh flowers. Still no office visible, a futile exercise so I tucked a little note into the branch of an olive tree and we headed away.

But wait…I sat down to send a message and photo of the tree to Andy and the old man came up gesturing along the street and saying ‘auto, auto, office’ so off we went to find another big gate with a car outside a small office and a lovely young man who spoke English. I was able to give him Benny’s name and date and he said ‘come with me’. We couldn’t believe it. He was just around the corner from the office! He is with his grandparents in a large, new mausoleum, glass doors, photos and candles and some memorabilia. It was really quite emotional for us both, so pleased to have been able to do this for Andy, to send photos and a small video of a peaceful resting place.

On the way out we thanked the man and Pete, being keen on genealogy, asked about cemetery records being on line, like we have in New Zealand. He said no, the cemetery is run by the city, some are digital but not public, many are a couple of hundred years old and are only on paper anyway, and there are thousands.

It had started to spit so we pulled on the plastic ponchos, out came the umbrellas and then, as they say, the heavens opened along with thunder and lightning, a repeat of last night’s storm and in Pete's words, on this occasion ‘Tears from Heaven’.Read more