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Published: June 13th 2011
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Outside Lucca's Wall
Alexis and JC outside the walls of Lucca Day 5 - Lucca Day 2:
After another late start, we arrived at the Lucca train station for our trip to Pisa today. Unfortunately, we got there at 10:42, which was when the train was leaving and even though most of the day they leave every 20 or 30 minutes, the next train was at 12:42. So, we bought our roundtrip tickets, for 2.50 Euros each, each way, then returned to stroll around Lucca and a brief stop in our room, then back to the station. The train was a very small local commuter type train with no ammenities. The trip only took about 20 minutes, including 3 or 4 stops along the way. When we got to the station in Pisa, Pisa Centrale, we realized that instead of being very close to the famous Leaning Tower and Piaza de Miracoli as I thought from my internet research, we were in the very southern tip of Pisa while the tower and all was in the very northern tip. Oh well. We hiked across town, stopping for a quick lunch at a "fast food" place, Bar Martini I think, where we ate some panninis/sandwiches and a bit of pasta salad, we
San Frediano Organ
A neat organ inside the churhc of San Frediano in Lucca finally arrived at the Piaza dei Miracoli. Wow, such crowds and soooo many vendors. The souvenir shops ran all along one side and then out the other portal and along that street too. We soon realized that it not only wasn't free to climb the Leaning Tower, it costs 15 Euros each, and the next available tour was at 5:20pm. It seemed a bit steep just to climb up, plus it wasn't even 3pm at the time, but we decided to go for it anyways. Once in a lifetime thing and all.
We spent most of the time, or Manoli and Alexis did, looking at the myriad of souvenir shops, plus a long rest at the nearby McDonalds. Finally, it was time to return and check in all our bags (you aren't allowed purses, backpacks, or anything containers in the tower) and get in line. We ended up being the first ones in line. The climb was 300 steps, going from double wide stairs to single wide stairs, to VERY narrow spirals, but we all made it safe and sound on the very top of the tower. What a view, and very freaky walking around when you could tell
Lucca Street
JC and Alexis walking down a typical street in Lucca the floor was almost always leaning one way or the other. By this time it was around 6:30pm, so we hiked back to the station to return to Lucca. Arriving in Lucca, we returned to the hostel to look on my computer for a special place to eat dinner. By unanymous vote, we picked the Trattoria Da Guilio, since it sounded like good, local, inexpensive, homemade stuff. It turned out to be just that. The prices were almost surprisingly low and the food was all delicious. Manoli had a homemade pasta with pesto sauce, Alexis had Tragatelli al Ragu (which looked more like ravioli), and I had Ravioli with ricotta and spinach inside with a delicious sauce. We couldn't resist ordering a couple tiramisu desserts, which were heavenly. Being close to 10pm, we returned to the hostel to wrap things up and hit the hay. At the moment, I'm not sure what we're going to do tomorrow. I'd planned on going into Florence for the day, but Manoli is thinking it was a lot of hassle and expense just to see some artwork, so you'll be just as surprised tomorrow as I am.
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