Perfect balance.

This collection of chimney stacks in Lucca would give an English building control officer a coniption and as for elf and safety...well forget it. Working on old houses you soon grow out of the habit of looking for anything resembling a right angle or a wall that is plumb or true. I am as a rule a bit of a stickler for repointing and relining stacks but after seeing the above I may rethink my approach.They do work though so I suppose the inhabitants are happy with their rickety arrangements and perhaps save their money for more important things such as Lucca's varied and wonderful eating establishments. I plan a return trip to Lucca next year to further check out the fantastic buildings and to avail myself of more tasty food and drink...mind you that does depend on what the chaps got up to when family OTW retired for the night!

Past glory.

In between eating and drinking my scouse workies and I spent quite a bit of time in Lucca poking around in various backstreets and courtyards finding points of interest that I suppose would not interest most people but fascinated us during our stay. This picture above is of a Palazzo that had either purposely or accidentally lost much of its 18th-19th century render.The original late medieval brick and terracotta work is to me much more pleasing than the blank expanses of painted render (stucco), made even more appealing by the additions and subtractions of time.The inserted window next to the infilled doorway is not exactly attractive but luckily only caused Minor damage to the detail work.Above the window a repair can be seen using bits of the detail work, no doubt smashed up from here or another building...the ocular? is also rather pleasing. I will post more of these pics over the next week or two as to me they hold more interest than those of the much photographed churches etc...did I mention we ate and drank a lot?