Logistics

It was still raining when we woke up yesterday morning, and the forecast was for storms throughout the day, so we decided to postpone our day trip to Cinque Terre for a day.

The weather was weird all day.  We had no sooner made our decision than it was bright and sunny, but fifteen minutes, when we would have been halfway to the train station, there was a downpour.  Later in the morning, during a lull of sunshine, Shelley and J.D. went out to run some errands, and while they were out there was another cloudburst. Fortunately they found a tree to stay somewhat dry under.  By last night, when we walked out to get dinner, there was a fearsome wind gusting, and we wondered if we were going to get hit with a storm before we got back to the apartment.

It has been good to have J.D. here for lots of reasons, but among them is getting a different perspective on the Lucca experience.  Last night at dinner he observed how unique Lucca is in being able to walk 10-15 minutes and find numerous places to eat where you can sit down, eat outdoors, and have a good meal.  You can certainly do that in a city like New York, but in Lucca you can do it without the noise and the traffic.  Lucca is a remarkably friendly place for pedestrians.

Because of the weather, we spent several hours on the logistics of our time post-Lucca.  We leave here on July 23^rd, meaning we are halfway through our time here, and we will spend three days wending our way to Paris by rail.  On the first day we’ll take the train to Northern Italy and spend the night in the small town of Tirano.  The next afternoon we’ll ride the Bernina Express through the scenic Swiss Alps and spend the night in Zurich.  The next day it’s on to Paris.

But first Cinque Terre.