Friday, June 1st -- A short goodbye to our lovely hosts at Fontelunga and we're off to Pisa, arriving around 1:30 pm. With Daniel's expert navigational skills, we once again had no problem finding our hotel near the Pisa airport. We unloaded our luggage into the very adequate rooms and left for a tour of Pisa. despite the warnings of not driving our car into the old section of Pisa, we had no problem finding a parking space on the street and wandered about the town. When we turned a corner and first saw the Leaning Tower and Cathedral, we were really taken aback.  The Tower certainly does lean, seemingly precariously so. And it, the Cathedral and grounds are stunning. The crowds were heavy, especially around the Tower, so many tourists doing the traditional pose of holding up the Tower for their own special Kodak moment. We purchased tickets to enter the Cathedral, which was itself one the most lovely we've seen.

We left Pisa after an hour or so of wandering and headed on the Lucca, the oldest city in Italy we were told. It is completely surrounded by a well maintained wall and entry is limited to only a few very narrow gates. Inside, we discovered one of the most lovely cities we've visited.  It was after 4:00 pm and we hadn't eaten all day, so we found a wine and cheese bar, ordered a bottle of Prosecco and a cheese platter, enjoyed the lovely surroundings and spent a quiet half-hour or so watching the people in the square.

We wandered about for another hour or so, and decided that being so late, we had best head back to our hotel. We also had to return the car at the airport which we found to be more of challenge than most of our other navigational experiences. It took us two trips around the airport which required a return to our hotel before finding the entrance to the auto rental return. All that was required was dropping off the keys -- no one to check us in and no paperwork.  The clerk didn't even want to know where we parked the car in their lot. He said they would find it and email me the receipt. Isn't Italy great.

We picked up four salads at the airport and brought them back for dinner which we ate in the lobby cafe area of the hotel -- the cafe was a group of vending machines. Back in our hotel room I repacked our suitcases to be sure we didn't exceed the combined 80 kilos of allotment for the four of us. I had about 15 kilos in my newly purchased duffel that I used as a carry on for the flight in the morning to Paris. We arranged for a driver to take us to the airport at 7:30 am the following morning, asked for a 5:45 am wake up and went to sleep on very firm mattresses.