71. Lucca

The next day we spent the morning successfully obtaining Somchai's visa, which was a bit anti-climactic. After spending two days trying to get a three day extension, I was expecting lots of ribbons and wax seals to evidence this obviously valuable document. Instead, the policeman asked us for a piece of paper, and he wrote something on it and signed his name to it. And that was it. When we left the country, we handed the scribbled on paper to the immigration officer, who looked at it curiously, then threw it away. So that was a total waste of time and we didn't even get a blog pic out of it.


Afterwards we took the train to Lucca, a small prosperous and not altogether interesting city nearby Florence. It comes highly recommended as a place to escape the tourist hordes and see the real Tuscany, but I think only the first half of that recommendation is true. It's like a mini version of Florence, very pleasant but nothing outstanding, and also not very lively. Like Pisa, it was once much more important and larger than at present, so everything feels a bit underutilised. It's most famous feature is its city walls, which were built around 1500 and completely enclose the city. City walls generally add immeasurably to my enjoyment of a city, but these were a little too pretty. Immaculate from outside the city, from atop the walls they looked too wide and too green, and functioned as the city park and jogging track. They did provide nice views over the city's rooftops as we circled the city.