Lucca by Bike

"There are no paths. Paths are made by walking"

We hopped on the train last week to go to Lucca, a fairytale sort of town just a couple hours from Firenze. The whole city is surrounded by completely intact walls, fortified from both the outside fast-paced modern world and the "flip-flop fanny-pack wearing invaders of the summer" (So true, we read that somewhere). We roamed the streets for a while, came across a calciobailla (foosball) tournament in one of the piazzas. Man do these Italians love their calcio!

Lucca was a pleasant escape from the endless tourists in Firenze. Its a charming little place, with tree lined paths, and almost no traffic besides the bike riders. After grabbing some pizza that Rick suggested (Rick Steve's that is. His books have become our travel bibles. We just tear out the towns that we need for the day so we don't have to lug around the whole book. Shout out to Janelle's dad for that handy tip!), we eventually we came across the Piazza Amifiteatro. It's a circular piazza that was built on the shell of an old Roman amphitheatre, and today is surrounded by little shops and restaurants. Then we continued our stroll around.

The walls around the city, the bike trail on top, in the trees

Next up, bike riding! The walls around the little city form ramparts that have great paths all around. It was a magical experience, feeling the breeze, the crunching of the leaves under my wheels, leaves changing colors along the sides of the path. So peaceful! And we made it around the whole city, twice! After an hour of bike riding (sorry Danielle, but no helmets were available…I begged for one but no such luck!) we ditched the bikes and caught the next train to Pisa. There was nothing too exciting about it. We got off the train, saved the tower from falling, then headed back home.