Lucca in Tuscany

Sunday, September 20, 2009 - We ended our wonderful Mediterranean cruise and said goodbye to the MSC Musica and began our journey into Tuscany. Renting the car in Venice proved to be challenge but we were able to experience an explosive argument between the rental agent and the group of young Italians in line in front of us. The arm gestures said it all.

The agent gave us the wrong car - no gas ("empty, empty, empty" he told us over and over again), no air conditioning and no GPS. Rocky missed the first entrance ramp to the highway but after some circling we got on the road and were on our way. The map we got from Hertz was worthless but we were able to find our way into Tuscany fairly easily - so easily that we decided to take a side trip into Lucca.

With Romanesque churches and medieval storefronts, Lucca is a timeless portrait of an ancient fortress town. We found a market in a piazza in the center of town where we stumbled across an elegant wine tasting. After the tasting and some shopping, we had an amazing pizza and foccacia lunch. Then it was time to leave for San Gimignano so that we would arrive during the daylight.