Lucca is made for biking, and our accomodation had bikes available for us to use, one of which was a tandem.

We'd planned a day of biking so with Scott on the back of that with Darryl (initially Darryl thought Scott might go in front - until he realised that would involve Scott doing the steering! ) and the rest of us on individual bikes we headed off.

It would be rude to complain when the bikes were free, but the brakes were marginal and the tires rather soft, and we only got 50 meters down the road before the chain on Sarah's came off. We came back and managed to find another one that was usable and headed off again.

It was a stunning day with clear blue skies.
We followed the river towards the centre of Lucca and the scenery was lovely, lots of trees and bush compared to what we'd seen in our ride in Parma. The centre is surrounded by fortress walls about 20m wide with trees planted on top, and biking or walking around the top is one of the highlights of a visit. So we rode the 5 km circuit enjoying the vista and chilling out. Then we headed down into the centre - a restricted vehicle area so relatively easy to bike around - although the tandam was a little large to manoeuvre quickly.

We found a few shops to stop in on the way - Darryl and Scott were entertained by a talanted clarinet player on the street while the girls checked out a multistorey clothing shop - with their summer range on sale. Some successful purchases for Sarah and we made our way to a "square" - in reality more of a circle with shops all the ways round and two tunnels to access the area. Very cute and a good place to grab a gelato. We've noticed public toilets are very limited in Italy- and you usually have to pay for them. Buying food gets you access to the shops toilets - and gelato is always a good option.
A brief look around the shops and we headed off to find the Lucca Aquaduct - no longer functioning but with a cycle trail underneath, it is an impressive structure to bike alongside.

We headed back towards town and by now it was mid afternoon, so we stopped off at a large supermarket and stocked up on our favourite supplies, wine local cheeses, crackers & fruit, and some things for dinner and headed back to our accommodation to enjoy the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the sun with some good food (28 degrees, unusual for this time of year here).

Sarah: I like the top and shorts I bought.

Scott: I sat on the bike with Dad and my legs just went around as he pedaled.

Darryl: The tandem bike was interesting to ride. The town was quaint with rustic Italian charm.

April: The walls were cool to ride on. The bikes were really crappy.