At dinner last night we caught up with ‘an earlier met young Australian couple’. We had fun swapping stories, a lovely twosome who we hope to see again. We also keep in daily contact with our gorgeous French friends who we miss a lot.
The rattle of our metal bedhead painted with over-sized cherubs was the only noise in our lodgings, as we set off for another day. Along the lamp lit street we walked until our ‘night before researched early opener’ appeared – we thought we were the first.
6am: they patiently stood there, loud. She turned on the lights, signalling they could enter. Two men carried the boxes of croissants inside, as hands felt for favourites, ours thankfully were not theirs. They ate while the coffee trickled. Only a dog glanced at us, as the daily routine unfolded, and more came. “I’ll have yours soon” she seemed to say, as she served the croissant munchers their daily short blacks. When ours was ready, it was relayed back to us as it was too difficult for us to reach the counter.
We moved away from lantern street and into a grand tree lined ‘via’, one of the indications that we were moving into Tuscany. No more lamps, so I held a torch down by my side to let oncoming cars know that we wanted to live. The close dark mountains made mockery of our existence as we took care to move nearer to them when there was ‘both way traffic’. Soon we were off the road once more through small streets and past well kept houses, then into a steep hill climb.
Light appeared behind the mockers, so we could more easily search for footholds as we carefully danced between loose rocks like children playing hopscotch with a pack. We joined the traffic once more, most cars kindly giving us a wide birth, a few testing our ‘desire to live reflexes’, others gave us a ‘bip of encouragement’ while cyclists nodded with empathy. To assist us in our ‘will to live’ the track planners created off road paths where they could, so we would exit the road – re-enter – exit etc.
A couple of village stops for a rest, medications of all sorts (long walk today), a chat with school kids who didn’t know what Australians looked like and we were just about home again. A final long riverside walk led us into Lucca, a very big village with an extensive old section. I asked a well dressed friendly woman for our ‘bed directions’ and she led us through crowded streets for 10 minutes to our destination. It is like a loft high up in the rafters, with 2 other rooms joining a common lounge/kitchen area. Now a long shower and a long rest in our long narrow rafter room.
