Author: simon

Really finding our way around which is comforting. The Guinigi Tower – can’t find out why someone thought it was a good idea to plant trees on the top, although apparently it was once the kitchen garden.

And when you see it, there’s only one thing to do. (Got the reduced entrance for OAPs!). Well worth it.

And the obligatory lunch in a beautiful setting.

And final evening before we move on.

The forecast today was stormy and heavy showers, although still hot. So the mountains seemed like a good idea.

Castellnuovo was praised in the guide book but not really looking at its best.

Barga, however, was great.

Including a late lunch – bit of a crisis as his electricity had gone off in the storm, so cold food (excellent), cash payment and use your phone torch in the loo.

And some views from behind where we’re staying.

Normal service resumes. On the recommendation of Giovanna had a fantastic dinner at an Osteria in the middle of nowhere – so much so that we couldn’t believe anything was there until we eventually found it. And the macaroni with pesto and mint (amongst other stuff) was fabulous.

And then to the business of Lucca. It’s always confusing to a)find a place, park etc. and b) get your bearings and find your way around. Lucca is nicely confusing as it has no central centre (as it were).

Coffee by what we thought was the cathedral (it isn’t).

This is.

See a tower and you have to climb it (233 steps if you’re interested). And worth it.

That really is a tower with trees on top – save that one till Friday.

And to show our confidence back to the house for a rest, then back to Lucca for another fabulous recommendation from Giovanna, all without a satnav. And it really is pretty warm, but watch out for the storm clouds.

So we’ve been in Tuscany for 4 days, but total lack of WiFi and 4G means no blog. Haven’t had a single complaint which is a bit sad. And added to a week of no WiFi at home (thanks, BT, for your useless service) it’s been tough!

Anyway, as always, let’s start with car hire which is invariably the fun bit. Worked fine, except they gave us a car which also runs on LNG. That’s fine except you can’t get LNG.

That means the petrol tank is about 2 gallons.

But we fell for the petrol station trick. They show the price which is fine (well it isn’t but it’s less than home) and a nice man fills it up for you. Then he shows you the very less prominent price of 40c per litre more if he does it for you. Fortunately 7 litres to fill the tank meant a lesser scam on us. But fun – welcome to Italy 🇮🇹.