Friday - Lucca and Pisa

After "checking out" and paying 65 Euros for the electricity and gas we used for the week, we piled into the car and drove to Lucca. The weather was a lot cooler than the day before with a few scattered light showers - but mainly sunshine. We drove around the walled town a few times before we found a place to park. Then we walked into the city and found a place for lunch. Everyone but Mommy had some kind of pizza (she stuck with the spaghetti pomodoro). H ordered pizza with egg - it came with a sunny-side up egg cooked in the very middle! AFter lunch, we rented bikes and rode around the town ramparts a few times. They were built a long time ago to protect the city from the new threat of cannons. They spent 1/3 of their income for 100 years on their production. They did the trick - no one ever attacked them (not even the nasty folks from Pisa). But they only saved the town once - when they sandbagged the gates to keep out a flood in 1812. After the ride and a wlk back through the city (and more gelato), we got back in the car and drove to Pisa. We got to see a few fields of sunflowers on the way. In Pisa, parking was a problem, but we eventually found a space. We walked in to the "field of miracles" and saw the leaning tower. Choosing not to walk up it, we enjoyed the good views - some of the cleanest, prettiest churches we've seen - and then headed home. The trip back was uneventful, but we did sit through a little traffic near Florence. Nothing like the peripherique in Paris, H noted.