(26-April) Lucca & Viarreggio or Bust

Bust!  (Viarregio, read on...)

ok, so this morning we were up and atom, ready for the car ride to the coast. After a quick breakfast at Degl' Innocenti bar, we picked up our small Italian car at the local Hertz and headed off for the coast. We had a stop planned at Lucca, but our hopes were set on the northwest Italian coastline with visions of Mediterranean beachfront splendor.

Getting out of the city and navigating the Italian countryside was not without incident as we missed several turns on the map, trying to decide whether to follow the hand drawn Hertz instructions out of town, or the Garmin.   The Garmin won eventually, and we were on our way. Italy is a beauty of a country, it really is. Even broken down farm houses are still beautiful, barren in open fields. As we sped along the highway, we could see the snow capped mountains to our right. Stephani snapped what seemed like dozens of photos, complaining that I was driving too fast for her photo session.   Driving around Italy is a bit of a challenge. One must really push the envelope in terms of legal speed if you want to be in the left lane, otherwise, you will see fast approaching, aggressive drivers come up on your rear end in a menacing manner, flashing their lights trying to get  you to pull over. Once you get used to it it's ok though.

We arrived at Lucca about an hour later. Lucca is a beautiful walled city established around the turn of the sixth century.  We drove from the freeway, saw a huge wall and thought to ourselves, this must be it. So we parked and walked across the street to this huge gate.  Here is what we found:

After we toured Lucca, we headed for the coastal town of Viarreggio, which turned out to be a huge disappointment. Here is what happened there.

Now, that amazing band that you saw in the Lucca video was so good, we have more video coming, so stay tuned. I just need to dash off for one of these.