Green Lucca Verde

by Cora Koning and Saskia Pauwels

What forms the genuine heritage of Lucca is what beauty we find disseminated all through the city’s architecture; is its hushed affability, that easygoing intimacy with history expressed and enhanced by the worship for floral decoration, by Lucca’s lasting tradition of love for the greenery, be it lawns or majestic trees with their projecting shadow. All this, in Lucca, is never pared down to something ephemeral, to a mere decoration: nay, it embodies a vital element of what renders Lucca an unique and astounding instance of a town intended as a work of art.
This book is the best attestation to our argument in the form of a loving, thorough research which took care not to neglect any experiences, even the apparently fleeting ones: experiences carrying an emotional weight just for being a work of love from simple citizens. They are to be found, always embued with craft and elegance, on terraces, upon the transom of some old door, on windowsills, arbours, lattices, below holy images and in uncountable other places, beautiful witnesses to a life informed day by day by joy, serenity and gentleness.