 |
| The excellent Piaggio/Vespa museum |
We gamely planned to go for a run first thing this morning but were greeted with the sound of rain upon waking. We have had a lot of rain since we have been in Lucca, and the forecast is for continuing thunderstorms and heavy showers over the next few days. Regardless of this, after a late breakfast, we headed out of Lucca. The first planned stop was the Vespa factory and museum. John happened to find out that there is a Vespa museum and that it is only 20min out of Lucca. The GPS took us via lovely rural roads, and we stopped off at one place for a late morning coffee. So nice just chilling out, chatting with Alastair.
Arrived at the Lucca factory just before midday but we had already checked it was one of the few places that doesn’t close during the siesta. It turned out to be a great place. The museum was chocka with Vespa motorbikes of all ages and models, but also Vespa produced 3-wheeler Apes, the odd train and aeroplanes. Spent a very enjoyable hour wandering around.
 |
| Along the river at Pisa |
 |
| The Pisa complex from the tower |
 |
| Together for the first time in a year |
Next stop was Pisa. It really does lean a surprising amount, even though it is apparently only a 4 degree lean. In-between the showers we managed to wander at leisure around the tower, view the cathedral, wander around the backstreets a bit, topped off by Alastair getting on the tour of the tower at 4.40pm. We got some great photos of him at the top of the tower, and enjoyed watching all the tourists posing for tower-supporting shots.
 |
| People posing |
 |
| The tower really does lean! |
Home to Lucca via a stock-up of yet more groceries at Carrefour. J & I thought we had already bought quite a bit a few days earlier but AJ has seriously lost weight during the year and he wants to get back to a more healthy weight. Hence, the low fat milk and yoghurt that we buy just doesn’t cut it. Stocked up on a serious amount of food and AJ now has instructions to eat every few hours. Hopefully we will get a few kilos on to him over the next few weeks. He is keen to stay on with us after our week together in Lucca, i.e. for the 3 days through NE Italy and the Swiss Alps and onto our 9 day home exchange in Freiburg.
Our plans for tomorrow are weather dependent – either cruise around Lucca in-between the rain showers or, if it is fine, head to San Gimignano and Siena (on a weekday to try and avoid the crowds).
