Lucca, one of our favorite places

First a bit of background: Traveling in a foreign country is always a bit challenging as we only speak English and rarely use metros or trains at home. Mostly Terri just follows me as I am the only one with google maps and internet and have booked all of our reservations. She usually tells me that she “trusts me completely” yet she casually checks to be sure we are headed in the right direction. She is also not afraid to ask for help whereas I always think I know where we are going and how to get there😉.
For instance, I had booked us first class train tickets to Lucca after leaving the cruise. We were supposed to be in carriage 2, seat C and D. There was a “2” on the inside door so I found C&D and sat down. Terri, even though she says she trusts me completely, questioned whether we were in the right carriage especially since an Italian lady looked at our seats and showed us her ticket. I saw that she was supposed to be in carriage 7 so I pointed her to the door. She shook her head and very nicely took some open seats and sat down.
Terri decided to walk 5 carriages down just to be sure, and yes she was right: we were in the wrong carriage. I had mistaken the 2 on the door for the carriage number when it was actually the class#. We grabbed our bags, smiled and apologized to the nice Italian lady and moved to our much better, more comfortable first class cabin. I hardly noticed the little smirk on Terri’s face.

Lucca, we have always wanted to return to after a short stay a few years ago. It is a marvelous old city built inside a huge walled ring. Again, it does not disappoint. We rented bikes for 2 full days and put almost 50 miles on them. Aside from my getting a flat tire and not being able to adequately describe the situation to the bike store owner, we had some great sightseeing adventures through the Tuscan countryside.