Sunday was declared a "day off."  We slept well and late; just had "pick up" breakfast - I had cereal, yogurt and fruit.  I did two batches of laundry since I had the time.  One of the parts of "living like a local" involves hanging out laundry!  There is a large clothesline area provided for the use of guests, clothespins included, enclosed discreetly by a nice hedge.  Of course, today is the coolest and cloudiest day so far, but the laundry did dry by the end of the day!  

Katie (on the left in the picture below) spent some time at the pool reading; I tiptoed quietly and caught a picture of one of the little gecko-like lizards that play all day but like to hide when people are around.  John and Dave drove to Pisa to explore a little bit in the afternoon. For supper we had the paella we had bought at the Farm Store - it was great and very easy to heat up - along with some pasta tuna salad.


After supper we drove down to the beach hoping to catch a sunset.  It wasn't so great because of the clouds, but we'll keep trying.

Monday (September 17) we set off to the Garfagnana - the hills and valleys around the Serchio River north of Lucca.  One of our adventures is not commemorated with pictures because it was so cloudy and foggy that morning.  We made a wrong turn and ended up on a very steep, very narrow (one lane), very windy road.  The GPS was quite upset with us and couldn't seem to find a way out so it just keep telling us to make a "safe u-turn."  We had to go up quite a way before we finally found a tiny church with about 2 parking places in front of it so that we could turn and go back down.  If it hadn't been totally fogged in, I think that would have been a lovely view!  While we were stopped, another car went by and we heard them honking the horn at each curve going down - that made sense since there was no way 2 cars could pass on most of that road!  So we got turned around and drove back down, honking at each blind curve, and fortunately not meeting another car.  

Back on the correct road, we stopped first at Borgo a Mozzano in search of the Ponte della Maddalena, constructed in the 11th century.  The legend is that the bridge was built by the devil in exchange for the first soul to cross it - in this case, it is said that the villagers outwitted the devil by sending a dog across first. It turns out that if we just stayed on the highway, we would have come to the bridge and there is parking available right next to it.  But we didn't know that so we parked in a lot in town and walked to the bridge, which was just as well because we would have missed much of the charm of the town if we hadn't walked through it.  Some sights of the town:


(The last two pictures above were by Katie.)  We continued on to Castelnuovo Garfagnana, arriving about noon.  Our inexperience was obvious here - we found a parking place and went to lunch, forgetting about siesta time!  By the time we finished lunch and wanted to go visit the two tourist centers (one run by the community and one by the Apuan Regional Park) they were closed until late afternoon.  

For lunch we ate at a small bar that appeared to be named  McCoconald's on via Garibaldi #4A (thanks to Katie for recording that).  We parked in a lot at the top of that street (it is a paid lot but free between noon and 3 PM) and passed this bar on the way down on the left side.  It had a sign that said something like "We don't speak English but we'll do our best to understand you!"  Then, on the inside door there was a version of McDonald's arches so we thought we'd give them a try and it was all very yummy.  John and Dave finally got some Italian beer (so far they had just found Beck's from Germany).  We each had a different pasta dish and they were all good and very reasonably priced (6-7€ each)  A somewhat silly but uniquely charming extra was the marine theme of  the unisex rest room.  I loved the clear plastic toilet seat with various sorts of fish and other marine life embedded in it.  (Well, I told you it was silly!)

Some pictures of the castle begun in the 13th century that dominates the town, a nearby bell tower and a couple other town views.   We stopped for a gelato and then moved on towards Barga.