Lucca...

Approaching the city from the train station, you must enter through the enormous walls. They built these walls in the medieval times to protect the town from intruders. They are so wide that there is a big park and trail all around that people stroll and ride bikes on.

It was lightly raining at the time....little did we know that as the light rain turned into a downpour, our cheap umbrellas would all break!

A different variety of window boxes. Lovely streets...

A daily occurance for Andrew is his attempt to "punch a pigeon". Lucky for the pigeons, their instinct is to fly away as he gets near. He will be downright giddy in Venice, I'm sure!

I was happy to see the hometown of the composer, Puccini. We just missed the big anniversary party of his birth - with many concerts and operas to celebrate. I don't know that everyone else feels that is a bad thing...

This is the apartment where Puccini lived. There is a big dispute between his relative and the city concerning this place whether to renovate or leave it as it is. Unfortunately, as a result there is nothing more to see than the outside.

The highlight of Lucca for us was definitely riding bikes on top of the wall. It was a beautiful ride and the weather was perfect. In fact, the timing was perfect. Minutes after we returned our bikes, there was a huge rain storm which left us completely drenched as we ran for the train station. Luckily we had an hour train ride back to Florence to drip dry.