Lucca

Still not having read the trip notes in detail, we were pleasantly surprised to arrive in our new town of Lucca. Lucca is a small medieval town that is completely surrounded by walls. In order to get inside this beautiful village, we had to walk through a little path inside the wall and up on top where a walking path now exists. We walked through the tiny cobblestone streets to our apartment that Intrepid rents out each year. It was old fashioned but very nice with the best perk being a roof top terrace. Later, we stopped at a grocery store which was fun. Diane helped us by being interpreter of food labels and teaching us grocery store protocol such as how it is a requirement for you to wear gloves when choosing fruit to by. We bought some great wine to taste up on our terrace and headed back to watch the sunset over this beautiful little town.

The next morning we rented bikes and rode around the tops of Lucca’s walls and then ventured out along the river and picnicked there. We stopped for some gelati which is heavenly, btw, and rode all the way back completely tuckered out. We ate dinner that night at a very special place called The Black Sheep. Here, people with disabilities get a chance to work at this restaurant with a one-on-one helper and they are taught how to interact, share responsibilities, and feel a huge sense of accomplishment. How come we don’t have restaurants that we know of like this in Vernon? Our waiter was kind. He used a long check list with numbers to help tell the cook what we ordered. Our menu was numbered and so he looked at where we pointed and checked off his list. Each table has a brightly colored centerpiece with a picture on it. Ours happened to be a Flying Duck. Diane explained to us that the reason they do this is so our waiter can remember to bring our food to the table with the flying duck. The food was exceptional!

We enjoyed our terrace once again and went to sleep in anticipation for a great day visiting Florence ahead of us. Luckily, we were able to take trains to and from Lucca so we were able to unpack our big packs and stay for 4 nights taking day trips for the next two days. It was a nice change to be able to stay in one place for so many nights.

This was as our last night with our interim tour leader though. Diane was getting ready to leave us because Monica finally made it to Lucca late this same night after three layovers and a long train ride from Rome. So tomorrow we will get to meet our new tour guide Monica.