Lucca

Lucca?? I hear you ask. Never heard of it? Don’t worry – neither had we, until about 5pm on Monday!! We were meant to be in Pisa for a few nights, yes, I know Pisa is basically a dump but we needed to do laundry, catch up on blog etc AND we were wasting time so that we could arrive in Florence towards the end of a week (you’ll have to wait to find out why) … So, we were booked into an Airbnb with great reviews and advertised, amongst other things, as having aircon.

Long story short – no aircon, dodgy wiring in the unit (to the extent that we were shown where to find the power board when it tripped) and all of this after waiting in the heat for 30 minutes while the “host” was uncontactable via any means. I decided I wasn’t staying 3 days without aircon (Italy is a lot hotter than temps we have had so far – aircon is not negotiable) – so we left.

Deciding we didn’t want Jarrah to miss out on at least seeing the leaning tower (we were right there after all!), we decided to go see it while we were waiting to hear back from another Airbnb about alternative accommodation for the next 3 nights. But… we ran into a ZTL (Zona a traffico limitato) – even though we’d been told that we could drive to the Tower without entering the ZTL zone. ZTL is a highly commendable initiative to keep traffic out of city centres in Italy, however there is no warning, you’re minding your own business driving down a ONE-WAY alley (far too narrow to be called a road) and the next second there is a sign (if you’re lucky it has flashing lights) and if you drive 20m further – a 50 to 80 Euro fine and the car rental company whacks you with an additional 40 Euro “admin” fee.

Right, so I do a 50 point turn, drive the wrong way down a one way (you can do that in Italy) and find a parking spot around the corner – only to find a home-made notice in the ticket machine advising tourists not to leave anything visible in the car, not even luggage, as there are thieves operating in the area. Seeing as we constantly have 2 suitcases on the back seat, that was the end of Pisa and its bloody shonky tower!

The fun and games didn’t end there though, the other Airbnb advised we couldn’t stay in their lovely, airconditioned home. Fortunately, Jarrah managed to find a hotel in Lucca but we were once again faced with ZTL zones preventing us getting to the hotel (more last minute U-Turns, reversing back into round-abouts etc). Tried calling the hotel before we booked and paid for it for the night, phone rang and then cut off, appeared number was wrong or perhaps hotel no longer existed or closed for COVID or something. There may or may not have been some swear words uttered at this point (still no dummy spit though – 7 months, 2 weeks and several hours since the last one I believe).

The good news is that we eventually got through to the hotel and the owner, Mario, directed us whilst we were driving to get us through the ZTL zones to the hotel within the walled city of Lucca. I’m fully expecting fines at some point in the next 6 months 🙂

I have a sneaking suspicion that Italy is going to be a tad challenging. Brace yourselves for more long-winded posts with more words than pics!

But Lucca was a lovely city (and Puccini’s birth place) and the hotel we stayed at was like stepping back in time. The decor and furniture are all OTT Baroque, chandeliers, marble bathrooms (quite delightful!) and it was a small, family run hotel. Owner told us that he had (past tense) COVID and recovered.

And not only did we get our washing done, but we had an airconditioned room AND … the bestest news of all … after no less than SIX months (almost to the day) …. I finally had my haircut.

The “before pics” … NASTY!!

And the “after” pic … Italian hairdressers can work miracles!!

Seriously, here is the “after” pic – SEE how much younger I look!?!?!? Totally has nothing to do with the Snapchat filter that miraculously irons away the wrinkles 🙂 This should do me for another 6 months.