The Best Laid Plans ..

It's our wedding anniversary today and, as we got engaged sitting on an Italian beach many years ago (admittedly on the other, Adriatic coast) we thought we'd mark the occasion with a trip to the nearby resort of Viareggio by local train.

Sadly, a suicide further down the line meant we sat just on the other side of Pisa for some considerable time before they decided to bring the train back to Lucca, arriving about two hours after we left.

We gave up onthe idea of Viareggio and instead, after a pleasant lunch in a restaurant on the city walls, we walked up the Guinigi Tower from where this view over Lucca was taken. Built by the wealthy Guinigifamily with a garden at the top as a symbol of the rebirth of the city ( and I suspect an element of " my tower's bigger than yours and it's got trees") it's another local landmark.

After that we hired bikes for an hour and did three gentle and very pleasant circuits of the city walls in the sunshine, followed by an aperol in our favourite square.

42 years ago tomorrow we set off to Paris on honeymoon where we posed in front of Notre Dame to take photos. So sad to see it today.