Lovely Lucca

I arrived in Pisa yesterday afternoon after doing a last tour of Florence in the morning to say goodbye. Had my last Florentine gelato, said goodbye to San Marco del Fiore (most of the churches in Florence are pink, green and white because of the flower motif). I said hello to the leaning tower... it really does lean and I saw two unrelated people having their picture taken pretending to hold it up. Then found the hotel I'd booked. Another noisy one, another sleepless night which, once again, resulted in an incredibly good day. Why is that? A reward from the universe for taking it all in stride??? This morning I dragged my heavy suitcase back down the 6 half-flights of stairs (it's full of parmesan cheese and sundried tomatoes so it weighs a lot more than it did two days ago) and set out into the Sunday morning stillness of Pisa to find a quieter place to stay. And found... the Michele Guesthouse. Yes, I do recommend it. Kind people... made me a cappuccino while waiting for the room to be ready, assured me that the room would be too quiet for me, and gave me detailed instructions on what to see in Lucca and the best way to see Cinqueterra tomorrow, my last day in Italy.

I loved Lucca. I bought a glass bracelet at an antique market, and later, by following the noise of voices, discovered an indoor market and sampled polenta and olive oil, and fresh (somewhat undercooked) foccaccia, which I watched being made from a big circle of dough that a young woman was flinging in the air just like my Nonna used to do. I also lucked into hearing an Italian choir practising in an auditorium. Then walked about 3 km. around the city wall back to the Stazione.

Trouble is, I'm starting to limp. Every part of my body is begging for a day off walking. Michele (pronounced Mi kaylay) drew me a diagram showing me how to see Cinqueterre without a lot of walking, by skipping one of the 5 villages and taking a train between the 2nd and 4th. So of course I'll go. After 12 hours on my back. I can do it.