Our destination today was Lucca, a small city just north of Pisa known for its Renaissance-era walls around the historic part of the city.  But, rather than go directly there, we first took a ferry back along the Cinque Terre coast and then caught the train to Lucca.  The boat ride afforded us final views of Porto Venere and, more importantly, the Cinque Terre cliffs along which we had walked.  We enjoyed seeing our hiking paths from the water and picking out places we had stopped for picnics or particularly scenic views.  The Cinque Terre towns look different from out in the water as well – there’s nothing like hiking into/out of them by foot!

   
    
 The return boat trip also enabled one last al fresco lunch in Monterosso and the chance to pick up a few final Cinque Terre souvenirs.

   
Then we said goodbye to the Cinque Terre region and hopped on the train to Lucca.  We had our ups and downs with the Italian train system (some connections work very well, others not at all!) but eventually got to Lucca.  Turns out that the city comes alive at night – after dinner in the garden of a restaurant where Ben had the local meat tortelli specialty, we wandered about the city (on the lookout for bicycles and the occasional car at every turn) and soaked up the charming atmosphere, scouted places to visit tomorrow, and caught some music from a local multi-day festival with big name acts from the 70s and 80s (Neil Young, Lionel Ritchie, Van Morrison, Earth Wind and Fire…). And, we went to the oldest and most famous gelato store in Lucca (est. 1927) and delighted in their large selection of flavors.  (Nick even had to try some, after holding out through most of the trip.)  We’re excited to explore Lucca fully tomorrow!