Lucca Aqueduct

This morning we started off with walking the wall, it is close to 45 minutes to do a full loop if we start right from outside our apartment. It was another beautiful morning, though a little chilly first thing before the sun warms it up.

Wendy is back to work again, and I'm busy looking at pictures and still trying to catch up on the blog. Also looking at where I may want to go for day trips during the week while Wendy is working.

We had bought some cookies over the week-end, and after snacking on those we decided only a small lunch was needed today. Wendy toasted some bread with honey, and I had some cold meats I bought earlier this week on bread. After lunch we headed off for our walk.

On today's agenda for the walk was to go to the train station to ask a few questions. We bought most of our train tickets at home and printed off the tickets on paper, but we weren't sure if we needed to exchange these for real tickets. We also weren't sure if we needed to get them validated somehow in the punch machines. Talked to the clerk and we are good to go since we have the times on the tickets, we don't need to get them validated. While we were there we also bought our tickets one way to Cinque Terre this week-end. We're not exactly positive what is open for hiking and how it works for tickets, so we'll deal with that when we get there.

This afternoon Wendy is back at work and I headed off on my bike to find the aqueduct that I knew was close by, we saw it driving the other day. I read on Trip advisor that it was possible to follow it to the end. It starts behind the train station and runs for about 3-4 km, a nice bike ride. It was built in the mid 1800s to supply the growing demand for water in Lucca.

The main highway crosses the aqueduct at one point and you need to go up and down a pedestrian crossing. This is the only point where the aqueduct is no longer standing. Other point you drive into the arches. There are around 400 arches.

At both end the cisterns are still there but you can not enter, very tempting especially at the far end where there is probably no chances of getting caught and you would need to be just a little bit acrobatic.

Will most likely do this trip again and possibly even walk it for a big walk. We do this with Wendy as well at some point in time.

This is also part of the Via Francigena which runs from France to Rome passing thru Lucca which and is similar to the Compostela that Ron, Nancy & Remy did 2 springs ago. It don't think it is as busy as the Compostela but I am not sure.

Also passed a small village where the was a cute church and an old lady getting water from the fountain. There was 4 or 5 fountains along the way and people were getting water at most of them. I am guessing it is natural springs compared to city water but once again this is a guess.

Not much of this around Lucca and Italy that I have seen so far and that is a good thing.

My mode of transportation, comes with the apartment

A few people walking along the way, some with their dogs.

Fun carrying a bike up and down

At the far end

Possible ways for me to do as long as I can get a bus or train back

This guy came to get some water

Olive grooves

On the way back into town I saw this car in a mechanic garage so I asked if I could take a picture.
 Not sure what kind of car it is and how old it is. Robin probably knows.

On the way back to the apartment, I biked by the skating ring and there was actually people skating on it. They have plastic penguins with handles on them to help stay up. They probably need that because I saw what the skates looked like the other night. They are made from plastic. They were having fun, that is all that counts.  Probably their first time on skates

Back to the apartment and Joey has been in touch with Wendy, she is so happy to hear from her. Joey ended up in the hospital last week and had surgery, something to do with the colon. Plus while they were in there they decided to remove her appendix as well. She has been suffering for a long time with pain in her stomach, so hopefully they have finally figured it out and she will have some relief. We understand more surgery in a couple of months, but she is on the mend.

On top of this Liam fell in his basketball game on the weekend and broke his arm. We heard he “had” to make the play. Good thing it was the final game of the championship. Anyway he's in a cast for a few weeks, quite the family! Sure do wish we were closer, but I know she is in good hands with her in-laws. Kyle was on his break from University this week so was able to make an unscheduled trip home. He returns to Halifax on Friday, I'm sure he's been lots of help, but I'm also pretty sure he's looking forward to going back to Halifax!

Supper tonight I tried to recreate the meal Wendy had last night. First off we had artichokes for an appetizer. For the pork dish I decided to add some mushrooms and onions, maybe not 100% Tuscany style. I did not have much meat so a bit of vegetables was good. I did not add as much mustard as the chef had done last night as I was afraid of it being too mustard. We enjoyed a bottle of the white wine that Lucie and Dan gave us last night. It is nice and dry and was a great compliment to the meal.

Just back from our after supper walk into town. Seems like a few more people are out on the streets tonight.

We've booked some more tours for Rome for later in our trip that will save us some time in line, so I think we are now pretty much set for plans for touring. If someone with a connection to the Pope could get us a visit with him, we'd appreciate it!