Lucca Day 4

I reluctantly said goodbye to Venice as we boarded our water taxi bound for the train station.

When I planned this trip it was originally a 9 day itinerary.  In an effort to make it more palatable for Dan I decided I needed to shave off a day.  I stared at the computer screen hoping something would stick out but didn't feel inclined to spend any less time in any one city.  I kind of threw a dart and picked Venice.  And in retrospect, while I did love it so much, it was also the smallest, and therefore wisest choice to only spend one day.

Before Leah arrived in Italy, we told her to pick any day trips from Florence and Rome that she thought looked good.  So she planned that once our train arrived in Florence, we would just transfer to one that would take us out in the countryside to the city of Lucca.

These big trains were a great way to travel.

 They were so comfortable and seeing the passing landscape was an added bonus in my book.

The only downside was that since Leah booked separately from us, once the train started to fill up our tickets didn't allow us to sit together.

When we arrived in Florence we saw that the next train to Lucca was leaving in just a few minutes.  We battled the Italian ticket machine, won, and boarded the train just in time.  Unfortunately in our rush we forgot to stow our bags in the lockers at the Florence station.

We pulled into Lucca and went on a hunt for some lockers since lugging bags around was the last thing our tired bodies wanted to do.  We couldn't find any but we did find the bathrooms.  I was not even tempted to use the facilities, especially when I saw they looked like this.

We ended up stopping in a hotel and being directed to a nearby bike rental/bag storage shop.  It was kind of fun because it was one of the only times where the language barrier was in complete and full effect.  If they  knew any English they weren't using it. But my gut told me they didn't because they were very kind and friendly.

Lucca is an old walled city.

The space between the walls was long ago filled in, which created a sort of raised park and bike path.

We mostly just wandered and took in the views.

I was enchanted by this tree lined street, in full bloom.

We ate some mediocre lunch and sampled the gelato for our contest.

I temporarily harbored some ill feelings towards my travel companions when they totally deserted me to some sketchy street performing clown.  He got me by the arm and wanted a kiss and some money.  It was all in fun until I realized he was not going to let go until he got them.  I kissed his cheek, gag, and opened my bag to get some coins. When I saw that I had exactly one coin to my name, I pulled it out and was more than satisfied that it was a one cent euro.  Served him right. Thank goodness he was satisfied too, that or he saw the emptiness of my purse and knew I wasn't good for anything else. He let me go.  Meanwhile, Mom and Leah had continued walking and were football fields away by then.  I broke into a jog and finally caught up.  They seemed totally unconcerned that I was nearly accosted by that face painted crazy. Leah and Mom, feel free to defend yourselves in the comments...

When late afternoon hit, we headed back to the train station because we wanted to have plenty of daylight to get back to Florence and find our hotel.

We crossed the beautiful Arno river and found it without incidence.

The Florence hotel was also a favorite.

We hit a local pizza place for dinner and had no trouble eating this entire pie.

We went to bed with full bellies, ready to take in all that Florence had to offer in the morning.