“It’s better to have a dead person in your house than a pisan knocking at your door!” … I’d like to beguin with one of the most ‘uncomfortable’ sayings that we have in Lucca. I’d also like to underline that this isn’t a saying that originated in Livorno, like many people may say and think, as Livorno didn’t even exist at the time. Centuries before Livorno was born, since the year 1004, various battles started between Lucca and Pisa, the latter attacked Lucca often in order to gain more power and territory. Until 2nd October 1342, when Pisa managed to attack and conquer the city for 27 long, painful years. At the time, Pisa was a powerful Maritime Republic, therefore went from door to door to collect duties. Pisa had a very modern and evolved statute for the time, and had a duty-free possibility: if there was a death in the family, this meant that they were exonerated in paying the duties for an entire year…so it might have been actually better to have a dead person in your house (depending on the family member, which included also animals in the countryside) rather than having to pay expensive taxes!
“You cost more than the river Serchio to the Lucchesi people”. Even though rivers are extremely important for the life and well-being of a city, since Roman times, the river Serchio has always been a big problem for Lucca, which has always had a love and hate relationship with it.
Throughout many centuries it has overflowed, destroying houses, harvests and crops and causing serious problems to the city and the people of Lucca. San Frediano, an Irish saint, who arrived in Lucca in the VI century and became bishop of the city, is a very important figure, as he diverted the course of the river in order to save Lucca from its continuous overflows. The legend says that he used a rake to trace the river bed and the waters miraculously followed it.. As if it were that easy! However, we do have documents that testify this historical event, though it didn’t happen so easily.
These issues with the river lasted for centuries and still continue nowadays, in fact the last overflow happened in 2009. For centuries up until recent days, you can imagine how much this river has cost the Lucchesi people… who happen to be very careful with their money, in fact there is another saying that testifies this…
More than a saying, it’s a way of life of the lucchesi people, who are renowned all over Tuscany for having “very short arms” that can’t reach deep down into their pockets. We would say, they are just plain stingy, but let’s not be too harsh! More likely, they are very careful with their money. How else would they have been able to get rich, and be such skilled merchants and bankers?! Funny enough, most cities of merchants are renowned for being quite ‘mean’ with their money. The braccio lucchese (the official ‘arm length’ measurement for textiles and silk in Lucca), was 59 cm (23.2.. inches), it was the official unit of measurement in the Republic of Lucca. It might have been too short for those who paid a great amount, for such exquisite silk!
