After doing all the “housework” that is needed when living in a camper, we said goodbye to Levanto and set off further south. We wanted to stay close to the beach and had found a few campsites on the Park4Night app in Viareggio that looked suitable.  The annual subscription to Park4Night is 9.99 Euro and  gives improved  search features over the free version and it’s well worth it

Viareggio

We arrived at the campsite before midday and were pleased to discover they had plenty of vacancies at a very reasonable 19 Euros/night (Levanto had been 50 Euros/night). Later that evening we discovered a couple of possible reasons for the low price. Firstly,  a 1 Euro token bought you 3 minutes of luke warm and temperature variable water in the showers. Secondly, we weren’t the only ones in residence – there were great squadrons of the largest mozzies I have ever seen. The locals, incredulously, seemed completely oblivious to them but then I guess  if you live there it’s probably the only way to live.

Once we had parked we got on the bikes and cycled to the beach. It was one of those industrially manufactured beachfronts with a great boulevard of modern restuarants, bars, hotels and holiday playgrounds that stretched as far as the eye can see. We had a drink and snack in a local bar then locked up the bikes and walked to the sandy beach which was a fairly long walk on very hot sand.

The beach was fine, although nothing exceptional, but it was good to get into the water to cool off on another very hot day. We returned to the camper, locked up the bikes and caught the local bus to the rail station to take the 20 minute train ride to Lucca. Train travel is easy in Italy and you can buy tickets at the station or online at Trenitalia you just need to remember to validate the ticket before travelling which means inserting it into a validation machine at the station which stamps a date and time at the bottom of the ticket.

Lucca

Lucca was fairly busy as it was the weekend of the Rievocando Lucca (Recalling Lucca) festival. We hired a Surrey bike and took a tour around the City Wall.

The cycle around the wall took about 40 minutes and was a good way of getting a snapshot of the city and seeing some of the performances  put on for the festival.

The impressive baroque Palazzo Pfanner Museum and Gardens could be clearly seen from the wall.

Lucca is the capital of Tuscany and the 16th century wall surrounds a well preserved historic centre. It grew out of a city of merchants and weavers  and was an independent state until Napoleon conquered it for the French in 1799. Today it is an impressive collection of historic buildings, boutiques and restaurants all in keeping with the cities historic past.

There was also, bizarrely, a large French open-air market in the Piazza Napoleone. I attempted to talk to one of the sales people in French but she didn’t really understand and glumly explained that the “owners” were french but “workers” were Italian. C’est la vie!

We enjoyed a early evening dinner at Turandot in Piazza San Michel, before catching the train back to Viareggio where the Mozzies were anxiously waiting to greet us.

Despite some reluctance we decided that, as we were so close to Pisa, it would be somewhat remiss not to take the chance to see the tower, so tomorrow we would visit Pisa.