Day 78: Lean times

Up early again this morning and soon driving towards Lucca again. This time, we stopped off on the way at the Ponte della Maddalena – the Bridge of Mary Magdalene – popularly known as the Devil's Bridge. A very impressive piece of medieval structural engineering, the bridge was built in the 11^th century, forming a vital crossing over the Serchio River on the Via Francigena, an important medieval pilgrimage route from France to Rome.

The vernacular name stems from a story, one of many told about these 'remarkable' medieval bridges, in which its builder, distraught about being unable to finish the bridge on time, made a pact with the Devil, whereby the latter would finish it in return for the soul of the first to cross it. The builder was then careful to ensure that a pig was the first to cross the bridge, thus thwarting the nasty old Devil.

Regardless of how it was built, the bridge is certainly very impressive, and we shared it with a group of three late-middle-aged Italian men, all armed with cameras, all snapping away merrily.

Just outside Lucca we stopped at the big, new Essalunga supermarket (as you may have guessed by now, we love a European supermarket). This one loved us back – so excited are they about their new flagship outpost that they were giving away free bottles of Chianti to shoppers as they (we) left.

Our destination for today was Pisa – when Sarah heard that we were in the vicinity she insisted that we all went to see the Leaning Tower. The land around the city is extremely flat and as we hit the outskirts, Kate pointed out the tower, white and leaning, poking up over the tops of the nearby buildings. Following Sally's directions, we drove through those outskirts until we reached the Arno River, where we parked the car and walked along a series of eerily quiet streets to the tower.

Before long we found it, looking just as the pictures picture it – white, ornate and on a tilt. It's situated in a large, grassed precinct ('Don't walk on the grass') with a few other impressive, if less off-kilter buildings, surrounded by numerous groups of tourists doing the 'holding up the falling building' thing, which Kate insisted the girls also have a go at. Formalities out of the way, we meandered over to the city centre, which was hosting a nice antique/craft market.

As we still didn't have anywhere to stay next, we spent some time looking for a bar/cafe/restaurant with free wi fi where we could have lunch while wandering the old information superhighway. We didn't have a whole lot of luck, however; although we did see a sign advertising Pisa's free city-wide wi fi network. But it was one of the those Catch-22 networks where you had to register to connect – after which they would helpfully send you an activation message to the email account you couldn't access because you didn't have wi fi. After a while we gave up and just back walked along the river to the car.

Yesterday, we left Florence feeling a bit unimpressed. We had had quite high expectations – everyone raves about how beautiful Florence is – but we just found it crawling with tourists, caricaturists and tat sellers. Yes, there are some amazing buildings, but get away from them and overall, the city is quite architecturally boring. Pisa was the opposite – we went in with low expectations and were quietly impressed by the architecture, and once you got away from the Leaning Tower, there weren't all that many tourists.

On the way home, we stopped outside the cafe in Bagni di Lucca that we had visited a few days before and used the password we'd gained to access their wi fi – and finally decided on tomorrow's destination - Turin.

Day 77: Four go to Florence

We had to set the alarm so that we would be ready to leave the house by 8.30am, when Nick was due to leave for Lucca. We duly set off in convoy, driving down the river valley in a light rain. When we got to the car park, we all piled into Nick's car and drove around the city walls until we got to the entrance near the bus station. There, we said our farewells and bought our tickets for the bus, which we were pleased to discover was due to leave in about 15 minutes.

In Florence, we found the information centre, grabbed a map, and then started taking in the sights – starting with the Duomo. Having spent so much time in Europe's rather-less-population places, we were slightly overwhelmed by the hordes of tourists milling about (and amused to discover that the current hawkers' product of choice is the selfie stick).

It was getting on towards lunch time by the time we'd 'done' the Duomo, so we walked to the central market, which is all pretty traditional on the ground floor but also boasts a rather swanky second floor, filled with shiny new bars and food stalls. We bought a (very good) pizza and shared it at a table next to the truffle stall (if we weren't travelling on a budget I definitely would have spent a hefty sum sampling the truffly delights on sale there). 

We then walked over to the Uffizi, stopping off to rub the nose of Il Porcellino, the famous boar statue for good luck on the way (although I've since discovered that this is supposed to ensure a return visit to Florence). We didn't go into the gallery – we didn't think that the girls would get that much out of it and neither of us are really big fans of the sort of art that it houses – but spent a while admiring the statues outside the Accademia Gallery, including a copy of Michelangelo's David. Then it was over to the Ponte Veccio, which was properly crawling with selfie-stick sellers. 

Everyone was getting a bit tired and fractious by then, so we called it a day and wandered back to the bus station, where we just had time for a quick coffee. The boar's nose had obviously conferred a bit of luck on us as it started to rain just as we boarded the bus.

Back in Lucca, we were obviously out of the boar's range as the rain had set in there and we had a slightly sodden walk around the city walls to where there was a gate through to where the car was parked. (Kate and I had a little moment of nostalgia when we spotted a park to which we had taken Sarah on our previous visit to Lucca – way back when Kate was pregnant with Zoe).

We stopped at a supermarket for some supplies and then headed home, trying with increasing desperation to buy some fuel on the way. All of the petrol stations at which we stopped were shut, despite the fact that it wasn't even 5pm. Many had pay-at-the pump options, but they kept rejecting our cards. We eventually found one that was open – well, the cafe it housed was open, but the petrol station bit was closed. Thankfully, its machines took cash and we were able to fill up.

Day 76: Zorro the second

It was nice, sunny in the morning, so after I had spent another session shooting the views around the village, we decided to go for a walk in the forest up the hill behind. As we were heading out, we bumped into Nick, who offered to come with us to show us his and Jackie's favourite walk – which would also give him an opportunity to walk Zorro. 

The trail wound past lots of little stone-walled terraces – Nick explained that life here had been extremely hard for Limano's early inhabitants and they had built these terraces to grow whatever crops they could. However, a large part of their sustenance had come from chestnuts, which they collected in the autumn, dried and ground to make flour. (Whenever we stopped for one of Nick's impromptu history/natural history lessons, Zorro would wander back and bark several times to let us know that it was time to move on.) We eventually reached a large cross on the side of the hill, where we stopped for a breather, before heading down a steep ridge and out onto a spur, from which we had some superb views over the surrounding hills, mountains and valleys.

In the evening, we discussed our options for visiting Florence. We hadn't really planned to go there, but it seemed a shame to be this close and not see it, so we needed to figure out the best way to get there. Kate was understandably less than keen to drive and the train is very slow, but then Jackie suggested the bus, which leaves from the city of Lucca (about 45 minutes from Limano) every hour and takes a bit more than an hour. She also offered Nick up as our guide to a free car park – they live most of the time in Lucca and he was due to go back tomorrow to pick up their son and take him to the doctor.

Day 75: An exchange of views

Sunrise revealed yet another spectacular view from our bedroom window – a neighbouring ridge-top village bathed in warm light streaming through a gap in the hills. I rushed out to find a better vantage point and then spent ages snapped away like crazy, trying to find a way to adequately capture what I was seeing. 

After breakfast, we drove to the little riverside spa-town of Bagni di Lucca, which has been known for its thermal springs since the 10^th century and once entertained the court of Napoleon. All of which suggests something rather grander than the quiet, unassuming little town we came across. The woman in the tourist office suggested that we walk along the river to the next village along, which we duly did. It was all rather pleasant, but not much more. 

The house in Limano doesn't have wi fi and we don't yet have anywhere booked for our next stop – nor actually any real idea of where that stop might be – so we stopped in a cafe with wi fi and tried to choose somewhere (without success, but at least the options are narrowing).

After lunch back at the house, Sarah and I wandered around the village, checking out some more viewpoints as the sun went down.