Lucca’s walls are special because they provide a beautiful tree-lined walk on their wide expanses. As poet D’Annunzio wrote Lucca is:
‘La città dall’arborato cerchio’, (‘the city of the tree-lined circle’.)
Twice a year the walls become even greener because of the garden festivals they host. In Spring the festival is held on the northern part of the walls and is called ‘Verdemura’.
The festival started yesterday, Friday, and will continue until this Sunday, 7th April. I visiting it today and I’ve been told it’s bigger and better than ever before.
There are more than 200 Italian and foreign exhibitors: from garden centres thousands of different horticultural species, shrubs, bulbs, tools and garden furniture for both flower and vegetable gardens, handicraft products and excellent food, all in the wonderful setting of the walls of Lucca.
In addition, there are talks and demonstration on all aspects of gardening.
Opening time is 9.30am to 7 pm.
Weather-wise it should keep fine. After two days of storms bringing much-needed rain to a parched earth things should be really sprouting out now.
I’ve written several posts on Lucca’s garden festivals. Here are some of them if you want to read further and see more photographs.
Incidentally, I don’t have to go to Lucca to see staggeringly lovely flowers. At a friend’s house in Lucca I came across these green-fingered specimens:
PS Lucca’s walls are the ones to go for….not the Mexican variety!!!