Alice and Randy's Amazing Trip to Turkey and Europe

Yesterday started poorly as we went to the train station at the nearby town, Pontassieve, and took a while to figure out where to park. Randy fit in the last, very tight space and we bought round trip train tickets. The train would just get us to Florence in time for our tour at the Academia to see David. But while waiting for the train there was an announcement that it would be 30 minutes late. We left and hurried to the car to try to drive to Florence. Bad decision. First driving was difficult - traffic and tiny roads - and we had no idea where we could park - it is not allowed to drive nor park in the city center where we needed to go. In frustration I called our tour company, Viator, and they were nice and moved our tour to Saturday (today).
We got gas and headed out of the city. We took the highway to Lucca, noted for its perfectly preserved city walls. They did not disappoint. We strolled along 1/2 of the wall (about 1.25 miles) and then descended into the city and walked through the old town. We stopped at a square that had been a Roman amphitheater and ate a sidewalk cafe. We both had pizzas and they were pretty good - very thin crust and done in a very hot oven. We continued walking through the city and found the entry to the outside we came in at (with the help of Rick Steves' map in his guidebook) and got the car from its street parking place (plenty of parking outside of Lucca, by the way).

We drove the short distance to Pisa and miraculously found a public parking lot very close to the old town and the famous tower. The first sights of the tower were simply breathtaking. Although everyone knows what the Leaning Tower of Pisa looks like, to see it in situ was amazing. It rises (with its sibling church and baptistry) in the town, near the city walls on the north, from a large green area. The structures were cleaned in 2010 and the white marble glistens. Yes, there were lots of tourist and, yes, there were incredibly tacky souvenir stands but it was still a sight that exceeded expectations by a lot for me and Randy.
We then took a short scenic road through the nearby mountains and took another freeway back to our home of Pelago. Near Pelago we stopped at our grocery store, "Penny Market", and got a few things. After relaxing an hour at home, we headed to our town of Pelago for dinner at La Locanda Tinti where our hostess Jane Borghini had made reservations. This is a very small (five tables in the proper dining room) restaurant attached to a bed and breakfast, bar and ice cream (gelato) shop. They were waiting for us and we chose from the all Italian menu with some difficulty. The wines were mostly the ones from the local winery Frescobaldi (which we must visit!) and the waiter was handsome and helpful with his few words of English. Randy chose the special seafood dinner which came with seafood pasta to start then a mixture of fresh shellfish, followed by lemon sorbet. It also included a 1/2 bottle of the local chardonnay, all for 25 euro! Alice had the ravioli with cheese and tomatoes followed by an assortment of vegetables including the best onions ever eaten. They were roasted in some mixture of wonderful flavors which made them simultaneously sweet and tart. I had a 1/2 bottle of the local reserve Chianti. We both shared a starter of mixed pork products (delicious here) and some spreads on toasts. It was nice to eat in a truly local restaurant and be only 10 minutes from our Tuscany apartment.