Inside the walls of Lucca (and a couple hours in Florence!)

Today was awesome. Blog entry done. Just kidding...although I did have to take a short nap before tackling it (thank you tap wine)!

We left our cute Rome hotel this morning at 6:30 and caught a taxi to the train station. 

The first leg to Florence was going great... 

...until technical difficulties made us 20 minutes late for our connecting train in Florence. 

What do you do with a two hour wait till the next train in Florence? 

Window shop for some pastries! 

And take a quick family selfie at Basilica Santa Maria Novella. 

Then we high-tailed it back to the train station to make sure we made our next train. There still was a bit of waiting... 

But we were soon on our train (with a bunch of crazy English people who would not be quiet!! Did they not understand the Benderz needed to sleep on the train?...

Obviously we soldiered through. Zoe also took a moment to do some training. 

We arrived in Lucca around 1:30, and made our way the mile from the train station to our hotel with luggage, over cobblestones. What a gorgeous place! I wish I had jeans and white shirts to pose everyone in against the doorways and take a Christmas picture! 

Outside the walls... 

Inside the walls...

In front of our hotel. We are staying at Corte dei Nobili in Lucca. When we arrived, the doors were locked (there are only three rooms), and Chris got hung up on the first time he called. I panicked and immediately thought of the Lyon leg of our last European adventure. Our only bad hotel experience last time! Chris stayed calm and another guest happened to be passing by and let us in, but nothing at the front desk had our name on it. Another call to an emergency number had us grabbing a key and entering our room. Oh. My. Goodness. 

It only took Zoe a couple of minutes to figure out the best use of this awesome bed... 

It was 2pm by then...and we hadn't REALLY eaten. So we put on smiles and headed out to explore (and find some wine and chickpea bread). Rick Steves was right on the money again. We enjoyed pizza and cecina at Pizzeria da Felice. Hole-in-the-wall with the best food! The cecina crepes were my favorite thing I've tasted thus far in Italy. 

We send Chris to do the ordering. Honestly, not one of us speaks a lick of Italian - but most people here speak enough English for us to be understood. And you would not believe how far a smile and wild, rowdy applause goes! 

After our snack, it was time to do some exploring. At one time, the walls of Lucca held over 70 churches within its 2.5 mile wall...and I think we saw most of them today. We also ate more gelato. 

Lenny Kravitz is coming to Lucca! 

After a quick stop back at the hotel, it was time to rent our bikes

and bike the walls that surround Lucca. Chris likens it to a flood wall, but it's paved and more like a park. 

We jumped off our bikes and took a few pics, but mostly we just enjoyed the ride. Zoe only took out one older couple.

 Zack happened to find some more automobiles to drool over. 

Then it was time to fill up our water bottles

and return our bikes. Z & Z saw a playground they wanted to explore, so we headed that direction and the kids impressed the locals with some acrobatics (i.e. Zoe did some flippy things and local kiddos tried to copy her.)

On the way back to our hotel, three people almost took us out on their bikes. When Chris answered their "sorry!", with a "no problem", they turned their bikes right around! One of the guys, Ben, and Chris were convinced they knew each other from somewhere...so they started chatting. He asked Chris if Chris did any cycling and Chris said just triathlons. They chatted a bit more and couldn't figure it out. Finally, Chris jokingly asked if Ben was riding in the Tour de France. When Ben replied, "not this year," Chris and I were starstruck. That's why he was familiar to us. He rides for the Cannondale team! Still have no clue how he knew Chris. Ben King gave us a dinner recommendation (which turned out to be incredible) and went on his way.  So cool! 

Before dinner, we did a bit more exploring and bought an ornament made in Lucca. 

Do you understand what I'm saying about the jeans and white shirts? Photographer's dream world here! 

We found Ben's recommendation, Trattoria Gigi, and grabbed a table outside. I seriously don't know where to start. Best food we've had in Italy! I can't wait to sing their praises online! We started with more salami and cheese, but also some spinach crepes, zucchini pudding and rice salad. So good. Zoe  ordered some tomato soup too. And that was just our first course! 

I forgot to take a picture before we started eating! Next course was rigatoni Gigi and spinach ricotta balls, and a big old chicken for Zack! 

Chris and I also ordered a pork and Granny Smith Apple dish that was insanely good. Gigi made all the Benderz very, very happy! 

After our tap wine was gone (did you catch that? Someone in Jax needs to get on board with this. Now. Wine, from a tap. $10 bought us a liter, which filled our glasses plenty of times. And it was good!)...anyway, when it was gone 

Most of our crew got silly...

Which left more tiramisu for me.

You know by now that our walk back to the hotel included a stop for gelato...this one in a super cute piazza. 

Then it was time for bath and bed. 

We figured she might never get the chance to take a bath in the middle of a hotel room again, so what the heck! I may have checked it out as well. I am currently blogging in a room lit only by my phone...6am was an early wake up call, and Chris wants to run the walls tomorrow. Duh. We head to Pisa for a quick tour and then on to Monterosa in the afternoon. 

Thanks for all the fun comments! The kids (and Chris and I) are enjoying them all! Yesterday the blog had over 500 views. So fun that so many are traveling with us!!

Ciao from Lucca, 

XOXO, 

Benderz