Saturday 10th September

This morning we went out for coffee and were told that there was a market on at the far end of town so off we walked and along the way stopped for coffee - €2 and was good. Finally got to the far end of town from where the apartment is and walked down through the longest market I have been to. It sort of followed the wall and there were lots of cheap stuff and Jannie was looking for linen. Found nothing and bought foccacia for lunch. They just cut off a slab and weight it and that's what it costs you. It was delicious. They package things so nicely here in Italy at the supermarkets and take so much care in the way they slice of meats.

After lunch we read for a bit as the town is shut from 1.00pm till 4.00pm. We were going to the information centre where they had WIFI so we thought that we would get the blog up to date. Not easy and it took all of 2 hours but I went to the bus station and bought tickets for Florence on Monday. It's about a one hour drive and without the car as the parking we are told is atrocious. Finally got that out of the way although we were not able to download photos so will have to do that some other time! We heard the drums and whilst Jannie was busy typing I went out and took some photos of the medieval drum group that is performing in Lucca for the next three days.

We walked back to the apartment via a number of the narrow lanes that are the essence of Lucca. Tall buildings both sides and little traffic although there are parts that cars are allowed if you have a permit. Saw a place that we could have dinner as we decided that we hadn't eaten out in the past 7-10 days and it looked ok. Saw street stalls that sold all sorts of edible goodies. We bought these delightful aniseed chips that were being made by a truly amazing machine. They are wafer thin and sort of biscuit consistency and they taste great so we bought a bag of them. The shops were all open after their afternoon siesta. Bloody weird that the whole town closes for three hours and b*****s up your day if you are wanting to be out for the whole day. Even the restaurants close so hence the need for purchasing focaccia and having lunch at home. Now we seem to be getting into the swing of afternoon siesta.

Went out for dinner and ended up with too much to eat. The salad would have fed 6 people but we enjoyed the Chianti. Whilst we were eating dinner we watched the Lucca 10km being run. There was a marshal on the corner by our restaurant and the runners and walkers came steadily by. We paid our bill and walked back home and clapped and cheered the runners as we went by. There was a check point on the corner of our street and the stewards were stamping the runners card as they went by. Very much a carnival thing and I don't think it was too serious but all of the competitors had a real lather up.