Lucca

We woke up at 10AM this morning! What is going on with us. Ran downstairs, the breakfast room doors are closed, but someone comes out and we go in and ask if we can have a quick breakfast. Some croissants and juice and we are ready to go again. Tomorrow we are going to definitely need to set an alarm.

Today we have decided to spend the day in Lucca. It is only about a 45 minute drive along the backroads, and we knew exactly where to park our car so it wasn’t too bad. 

Weekends in Italy mean you will find lots of bike clubs on the roads 

Pass by Pinocchios home town

Glad we have a diesel car, but it is still going to be expensive to fill up!

Walking through the wall to enter Lucca

It is busy in town because it is the weekend, we loved seeing it this way. It was also the day of the antique market, which we had never seen before as it only comes once a month on a Sunday and we always travelled on Sundays when we were here 2 years ago.

We started off by walking the wall. So many good memories. It is very different with all of the leaves still on the trees. Lots of people out on bikes and walking. 

We had hoped the Palace would still be open, it wasn't open last time we were here.  This is one of the bad things about travelling off season

A new structure since last time we were here, not sure what it is going to be.  we will need to come back again...

There are so many places that we wanted to revisit today that are closed, we probably should have come back during the week. The antique market was not too exciting, lots of old junk lol. 

Walked by our old apartment, so many good memories.

Our apartment from2 years ago

I so wanted this bakery to be open, Sunday wasn't our best choice of days to visit

It was hard to find somewhere to eat lunch. So many places are closed, and those that are open are packed. We wanted to just get a slice of pizza at a place we liked, closed, bread place, closed. Finally found a small bar around 2PM and had a decent lunch there

Don't remember if this store was here last time or not

We wondered if the new structure we saw being built by the train station was for this?

Happened on a photo exhibit at the palace that was very good. It was nice just to be able to see the inside of the building. There were quite a few rooms set up with photos.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town.  Many Italians come to Lucca on a Sunday afternoon for a walkabout

Roasting Chestnuts on an open fire :)

Wendys favourite

Back to Montecatini and pizza tonight for supper but ended up having pasta instead,

Sunday 22,000 steps