Wednesday 25th July 2007
We both went to bed quite early and had a good night’s sleep apart from me getting Annie more paracetamol and a cup of tea at 3a.m. We awoke at seven and decided that we’d drive to Lucca for the day as Annie had visited it last year on her choir tour and had loved it. After meusli, fruit and yogurt we were ready.
Annie is amazed at Italian drivers. She sits beside me saying, ‘goodness me, look at him’ or words to that effect. She’s a nervous passenger anyway but Italian drivers embody everything she constantly dreads. We left the table and chairs and our ‘this is our pitch’ sign and drove to Lucca. After a few abortive attempts at finding a parking space we found one where the helpful manager gave Annie a map of where motorhomes can park (only two sites in Lucca). I got our bikes off the back and we braved the Italian traffic.
It was only a short ride before we entered the medieval part of the town and rode up onto the old wall which surrounds it. We had a really pleasant ride around, passing many other cyclists, walkers, joggers and roller bladers. We then left our bikes locked to the railings surrounding a statue and strolled through the town half-heartedly looking for shoes for Annie. We didn’t find any that were suitable so had a gelati each and strolled some more. We found a chemist to get throat lozenges for Annie and then it was back to the bikes and off to the van again, speeded on by my sudden realisation that I’d forgotten to switch the fridge over to gas (doh!).
We found that the parking place had a water point and waste disposal so we made use of the facilities after helping a Belgian motorhomer who didn’t have the right connector for his hose. Then it was off to our campsite again where Annie put lunch in the oven before having another lie down assisted by two white tablets.
After lunch, I had a long doze and Annie finished off Harry Potter (he doesn’t die!).
Later in the afternoon, we got the bikes out again, and we cycled along the track just outside the campsite, and followed it to the beach. There was a huge array of regimented beach umbrellas and sun loungers, and the beach was separated into sections, each owned by a concessionaire, and you can hire the loungers and umbrellas, as well as fixed, wooden gazebos, by the day, month or season. This is the seaside as a business.
Here we could see Italian man in his element. Nearly all of the beach visitors we saw had the flowing locks and the bronzed and worked-out bodies that they considered essential. Not that I was jealous – oh no. Not much, anyway.
After walking in the surf for a while, we collected the bikes and cycled up the sea access road towards the town, past pizza restaurant after pizza restaurant, and occasionally an empty space where something used to be. It seemed a strange mixture of wealthy success and sad desolation.
