Lovely Lucca and a Side Trip to Pisa
Day 5: We left the Cinque Terre and took the train back to Levanto where we pick up our motorcoach again and drove to the Tuscany Region. We made a stop first to enjoy an afternoon in the charming fortress city of Lucca. It is encircled by a wall over 2,000 yers old. We took a tour of Lucca with a local guide including a walk through the round Piazza dell' Anfiteatro and its beautifully colored buildings. After the guided tour we were free to roam the streets of Lucca. I teamed up with a very nice couple from CA, Dennis and Karen, and we grabbed some lunch at an outdoor cafe. After lunch we worked off the calories with a nice little 2.5 mile bike ride around the ramparts of the Renaissance wall that encircles the city. Following our time in Lucca we made an unplanned stop to see Pisa's Field of Miracles: The Duomo, Baptistery and its Leaning Tower. Back to our air conditioned bus we journeyed up through the farmlands and ended our day in the the Hill Town of Volterra. I fell in love with Volterra before we even reached its impressive walls that wrap around the city. It was so alluring sitting frozen in time at the top of the hill looking out over the rich farmland below. Very few cars are on the streets of Volterra and certainly no big buses. We got off our motorcoach on the edge of town, grabbed our luggage, and walked the cobble-stoned streets to our home for the next two days, Hotel La Locanda. After getting settled in we enjoyed a Tuscan family-style feast at a local restaurant.
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