Lucca and Pisa

Our plan was to take the train to Florence and rent a car from there to drive in the countryside to a little city called Lucca, a place neither of us knew anything about except that there was a big wall around it and it was close to Pisa where we also planned to visit. We arrived in Florence and headed straight for the rental car agency. Since Tom has never been to Florence I couldn’t let him see too much until the next day when we planned to stay there, it had to be new for him when we met up with Jenna so we could all enjoy it together. We asked a couple rental car places and they all wanted about 90 euros for a day, so we decided to nix that plan and get back on the train, so much for trying to plan something. We walked out of the train station in Lucca and were greeted by the aforementioned big wall with several tall towers peeking over it. After finding our way inside the walls where the original settlement is found we began to search for the hotels in my guide book. This is the only problem with doing everything on the fly, sometimes it takes a while to locate accommodation and you end up wasting some time and energy walking around lost with your bags looking like a tourist, and I hate looking like a tourist. Just walking around by myself I can go pretty much unnoticed in this country since I look like them a bit, but when I’m pulling my bag behind me and the wheels are bouncing off the cobblestone street and echoing off the old buildings that are about 10 feet apart it’s difficult not to draw attention. We eventually found a place to stay and then headed out to see the town before it got dark. My guide book also said the thing to do was to rent a bicycle and ride around on top of the city wall, so the guy at the hotel where we could get a bike and he gave us the discount card to take to his buddy at the rental place and off we went. Finally I’m on two wheels again, no motor, but I’ll take it. The wall is only about 3 feet wide on top and about 25 feet high with no rails, so you have to be very carefull when you ride on top of it. O.K. just kidding, it is about 25 feet high, but it’s also about 30 feet wide on top, it’s like a huge bunker all the way around. They built it that way to resist canons and nobody ever even bothered to try bombing it, so I guess it worked. It was a nice ride around, only took about 20 minutes, and you get a good view of the town. We then rode through the town a bit, ringing our bells as we weaved through the people walking around and then took the bikes back.

Then we asked the guy at the hotal where his friend’s restaurant was and went there for dinner. After a good meal we went outside to find we were the only people there. The waiter told us the place is loaded with toursits in the summer, but since this is winter we were the only ones there and it was actually quite nice. The town is beautiful, with small cobblestone streets, even smaller alleys, several towering torre and some decorative church facads, it really is that small Italian country village that you would picture in your mind, and it was nice to experience it in it’s natural state and not have it ruined by a million tourists.
The next day we wanted to climb one of these towers and get a good view. When we found one that was open there was a woman inside who was so busy doing a parole croce, crossword puzzle, that she didn’t even acknowlegde our existence. So I asked if we could please pay the 5 euro for the privilage of climbing the stairs to the top, and she reluctantly said yes and took our money. The view from above was worth it, even though it was a bit cloudy. There was even a planter on the roof with a few small trees growing, it was a nice place to hang out a bit.

Now it was time to take a quick train ride to see that other tower in Pisa. There really isn’t a whole lot to see in Pisa except the Campo dei Miracoli, field of miracles, where the leaning tower is leaning and there’s a large church and baptistry. They wanted 15 euros to climb the tower and we both decided it wasn’t one of our life’s dreams to go up there, so we didn’t go up. Besides, the thing’s crooked anyway. We took a look inside the church and then took the obligatory photo of us holding up the tower and found our way back to the train station. Pisa is definitely a tourist trap, with all the stands set up to sell silly little trinkets and all the guys selling fake Gucci bags and Rolexes everywhere. We were now on our way back to Florence to meet Jenna and spend a few days there.