Pisa and Lucca

Quote of the day: “It cooled down this afternoon. It dropped from 31C to about 28C.”

Livorno is a working port, serving Florence, home of Dante, Da Vinci and Michelangelo. We spent time in Florence a few years ago, and had no desire to return now, in the busiest tourist season. The port itself has little to recommend it, so we headed for Pisa, which is a short train ride away. Yeah, yeah, the tower is on a lean, as everyone knows. But how it manages to stay upright is beyond me – the lean is much more pronounced than it looks in pictures. I passed on climbing the tower, just in case today was the memorable day in history that it decided to fall over…

After the bustle of Pisa - and a couple of really good cappuccinos - we headed for the small town of Lucca. This was a lovely place to wander around for a couple of hours as there were virtually no tourists. We didn’t have a map, so JB was back to her usual trick of “wandering where the streets lead”, but this time we didn’t get lost. We had salad and bruchetta at a cafe in a piazza, and watched the world walk by (the centre of the town in car-free).

Another great day on the Med…