It is 5:43pm and I am in a Tourist Information in Lucca. Jon and I have been walking around this medieval town of Lucca for some hours and my poor baby Scott is at the Sogni d'Oro B&B (without breakfast^^) at the moment. A young nice lady at the TI made a dinner reservation for all three of us at the restaurant called Antica Drogheria near Porta Elisa at 7:15pm. This morning we left Diana and Nerio's house in Santa Maria Villiana at 9:30am and made the 10am train from Riola to Porretta Terme to catch up 10:21 train to Pistoia. We barely made it. Diana grabbed the train for us (almost literally!) and we saw Jon aboard! At Porretta Terme we waited for 2 minutes before getting on the train to Pistoia. No sweat. There were about 40 tunnels between Porretta Terme and Pistoia: it was a leisurely scenic ride. At Pistoia, we had a terrifying moment. The next train to Lucca seems to be one leaving at 14:21 hours! We arrived at Pistoia at 11:30am! How would we kill three hours in this small unknown town? After a short while, we decided to inquire with a ticket officer and thank goodness, the next train to Lucca was 12:47pm whose final destination was Viareggio which was 3 stops from Lucca. We were so ignorant about all these small Italian cities... So, we decided to have a lunch in Pistoia. After walking around a bit, we settled at a pizzeria right by the train station and had some hot sandwiches with drinks. The train to Lucca was brand new, maybe six-month old! And it was also a double decker! We sat on the upper level, marveling at its newness. However, my affection toward Italians in general turned sour when we almost missed Lucca station. There was no station sign or announcement what the next station will be! Scott saw a "Lucca" sign on the railway, which was not for passengers but for the conductor or any other railmen. Oh well, we got off and started walking toward Sogni d'Oro, which was about 10 minutes away at normal walking pace. However, for Scott's injured foot, it was still too much. So, he had to rest when we arrived at the hotel about 2:30pm. Jon and I got out and walked on the famous rampart-2.5 miles in the full circle-from Porta Elisa to Porta Elisa from 3:30pm to 4:19pm, while taking picture of beautifully impressive building and the wall of Lucca. The main street Via Fillungo was very crowded with window shoppers. Yes, it is Sunday with the antique market, but the crowd was just too much. Side streets were okay, though. Now, it's time to go back to the b&b and take Scott to dinner. I'll get back to the blog whenever I can. The internet access was hard to find... Ciao, my imaginary readers!