Travel – Luc in Lucca via Pisa

After two flights and extreme sleep deprivation, which makes me fully understand why this is a form of torture, we arrive to Pisa. It begins in the car rental station with thwarted efforts reading maps (get the GPS) to discover that we have a standard shift, which I haven’t driven since before Luc was born. Navigating the Tuscan roundabouts, which you share with Vespas and cyclists, raises the degree of difficulty since these are actual humans and not the blocky people on son’s favorite app.

While Pisa layers on the quaintness with their colored buildings and street vendors who want to charm you into paying them for a public parking space. When in Pisa!

Our first day in Lucca we are booked in one of those charming B&B’s edging an antiquated street of like-minded brownstones. Typically I am weary of B&B’s for having to be artificially chipper to your innkeeper and fellow guests after a long journey when the sole agenda is shower and bed. However Francesco, who checks us in, is designed for this sort of thing. Those Italian men have that I-am-in-no-mood-to-chat radar and still manage to make you feel welcome and less exhausted. And for those who will be traveling on a trip abroad soon, remember your soap as I cannot distinguish the difference between body gel and shampoo. Adapters for outlets is also an essential, as I am currently on low power mode for all electronics. Also, watch your head in the corridors. Though I am not particularly tall, I bumped my head a few times on the genuine wooden beams.

And what is the first thing we eat in Lucca? Gelato of course, it is Friday.