Day 6 : Lucca

So imagine three Americans in a Ford Fiesta trying to decipher maps and Italian road symbols while driving through Tuscany. Apparantly, Italians love roundabouts, but don't understand the concept of proper arrows on signs. A few times we went the wrong way, but figured out our faux pas in due time. We got hungry (again) and randomly chose a place called La Casa Rosa for lunch. The girls each ordered foccacia and were greeted with a look of wonder by our waitress who replied "Due?". When the food came out, we realized what the look meant. The foccacia was easily bigger than my skull but we all tore into it anyway. Apparently, the ristorante had loads of cute Italian men on their lunch break which kept the girls very happy. We headed for Lucca and were mesmerized by its beauty and people. We stayed at the Hotel Diana which had a friendly and efficient staff and were able to park our car nearby. Once we started to walk the streets, we realized we were in a shoppers' paradise. The city was deemed "The Land of Accessories" by the girls due to the countless shoe, jewelry and eyeglass stores. We did witness a tense moment at a shoe store where a couple of tourists battled over a pair of boots. Linda and I broke away from shopping by drinking wine and beer at an outside cafe and people watched (which was a theme of the trip). Later that night we met our friends from Scotland (see the previous posts) for a whimsical evening of thick accents and laughter. We definitely were sorry to leave Lucca after only one day and would have tacked on an extra one to do more exploring.