Narrow Cobbled Streets and Buses?

Tiny euro cars whipping through winding cobbled streets is startling enough, but buses? Oh my. On another note… Known as the “City of 100 Churches”, Lucca has an impressive array, I’m sure we will never see them all! Today’s extra photos highlight three of the churches we passed by in our daily exploration. 1) The 12th c labyrinth on the exterior of San Martino cathedral pre-dates the one at Chartres, to the right is the latin inscription, “This is the labyrinth built by Daedelus of Crete, from which none could escape except Theseus helped by Ariadne’s thread”. 2) The backside of the facade of San Michele Cathedral, note the exposed stone staircase leading up to the angels on high. Acrophobia, anyone? 3) The relatively indescript Church of Santa Maria Forisportam has an interesting surprise inside: a darkroom sun dial. High on the western wall is a hole for light and etched on the floor is the hour line meridian. When the sun reaches its maximum height, the shaft of light intersects with the hourline meridian indicating the exact midday point, which shows that Lucca noon hour occurs 7 minutes and 55 seconds behind Rome.