Not a really restful night for either of us. Nothing bad, just a tossing-and-turning sort of night for both. Breakfast in the hotel before 9:00am, then out and about to roam the old walled city of Lucca. Turns out that this place has a ton of history, back to 200 years BC. So much history, so many famous people passing through the portals of this walled city, it is just stunning and so far from the reality of what we know in 'the new world' that we may as well be on another planet. I so wish that I had lived the experiences that I am having now before I got too old to do anything about it. If this had been a 'post Grade 12' trip rather than a 'post retirement' trip, I may have picked a different career. Not that it isn't worthwhile now, as the experiences impact Jan and I greatly. I just can't DO ANYTHING with what I am learning.
We saw, we filmed, we lunched. Like Caesar's words, 'I came, I saw, I conquered', only a bit less pretentious. Great lunch, in the open in a sunny Piazza, with wine and Cappucinos. The Italians know how to live well, and we are learning.
Climbed another tower today, see the pictures below. This one had trees on top and was square. And 'only' 265 steps, but they were higher steps than 'the Tower' yesterday. Today's had no perceptible lean, either, which was nice. We also walked the whole of the wall surrounding the town, well over an hour in distance, closer to two hours, but we took a bunch of pictures along the way so it wasn't all walking time. Many locals on the walk on this bright and sunny day. Joggers, bikers, walkers, old and young, nuns with a bunch of kids in tow, and a big transient market in the morning hours and all the tents down and gone by 3:00pm.
Narrow streets, lovely old town, very wealthy in its day (one thousand years ago) and still a great tourist destination today. For us, following Avignon with its walled city and Pope's Palace and fabled Bridge, Lucca did not have quite the impact that it might have had. One more reason to rest up here so that we will be fresh for the experiences that will come.
Overall a lovely and friendly place. We absolutely love Italy and the Italian people. We want to live here, among them, if we could only master the language. But they all speak enough English to fully handle all the questions we have, whether hotel staff or restaurant staff or kids in the train station that show us the details of how to get to where we want to go, or the people that we meet out and about. We will go to night school when we get home, then come back here. It's a dream, but not yet a reality to live this life.
