Tuscany
Tuscany is a land of stunning geometry- rectilinear houses of lemon and melon and stacks of terraced vineyards carved into the hillsides in various sized triangles. There are endless fields of sunflowers and grape vines in military rows that collide in a pinpoint where the erect cedar trees frame the horizon. It's simple beauty is intoxicating.
We had been biking for a few hours, some of it in the right direction, when we decided to have lunch and a beer in the little town of San Guiliano Terme where we found ourselves. We made a lunch of beer, bread, cheese, tomatoes, olives we purchased in a small grocery and ate in a shady park in the town center. some time later we entered the town of Colognole where I was convinced that we needed to make a turn. Leslie wasn't so sure so we approached a group of old men seated at an outside cafe who were talking amongst themselves. No one spoke English. I said "Lucca?" in that international language of the pitiful which launched an animated debate about the proper direction. The men clearly had been looking for a new discussion topic; they started to argue and gesture like they were negotiating a prisoner exchange. Leslie and I decided to retire to the shade of an ancient tree and await the issuance of the committee report.Finally, one of the men sidled over, and, with a conspiratorial look that  said "don't listen to those clowns" surreptiously pointed the way we should go. On we went arriving at the Hotel Carignano late in the afternoon.
I may have mentioned that the bike trip was from Pisa to Lucca. Unfortunately, the Hotel Carignano is not in Lucca, but about 5 kilometers out of town. Leslie and I were both spent and a little disspirited to learn this fact, But a 20€ taxi ride was not going to keep us from our destination.
We arrived in Lucca, a medieval walled city ( I told you this was a theme) in the early evening.  Only 9000 or so people live within the walls; many thousands more live in the modern city of Lucca. It seems that a million or so had wedged themselves inside on this particular evening.
The walled city is a busy place, dissected by a Byzantine network of narrow streets and boasting 103 churches and approximately 6,800 gelato shops (I rounded down for simplicity). We spent about an hour looking for various piazzas and churches using a map with 4 point type and decided to have dinner at a sidewalk cafe that had been recommended by gelato shop worker whose friend owned the restaurant. After supper, we walked some more marveling at the architecture and how a place built a thousand years ago can support the services and needs of a modern city. We finally reached a ramp that led to the top of the wall.  The wall encircling the city is 4 kilometers, and a delightful walking/ biking path covers the entire distance from which you can see the world outside, a cold and uninviting looking city. Clearly, the wall is still doing its job. we walked about half way around the city to where we thought the taxi had left us just inside the gate, found another ramp that led down to the street level and promptly got lost in a labrynth of streets and dead ended alleys perfectly suited for late night assault and battery.
It was way past time to return to Hotel Carignano.