Mr. Jim's Wild Ride or You Need Me On That Wall!

Sunday. Today we are the last to arrive at breakfast...now that's the Jim we all know and love! We head off to see Viareggio an upscale seaside resort. It's really hot and humid today but we do a bit of wandering and then head back to Lucca. There is a band performing in the streets. It looks medieval, with flag throwers, LOTS of drums, really loud drums, and really long horns. It was fun to watch. We check out the house where Puccini was born. We have walked right by this whole piazza totally dedicated to Puccini many times and not recognized it ...we really need to concentrate less on food and more on what we are passing.

After our afternoon rest we join the massive Lucca passeggiata (see picture) and make our way to the bici rental shop. According to the books a person can make two leisurely laps along the 2 .5 mile wall that surrounds the city during the one hour, €3 rental. Jim mounts his white bici, muttering that the goal of this ride is just to not get run over; just to stay alive. After the first timid 3 meters, Jim begins to take on a whole new persona. He is swerving and weaving, dodging and bobbing like a true Lucchesi. The top of the wall is about as wide as a normal residential street, but in the evenings it is packed with literally hundreds of Lucca citizens. They are walking and riding bikes; pushing strollers and chasing children; there are groups of grey-haired women and bands of teenagers; they are young and old; there are runners and tourists pulling suit-cases; there are couples holding hands and there are people walking dogs....and there this Jim. Jim is possessed; he is swerving around small children and shooting the gap between a stroller and a group of elderly men. He deftly avoided a small dog and maneuvered around the inadvertently dropped water bottle. He rode down the middle, on each side, off the road, across the grass, over the curb what ever was necessary not to stop the forward motion of his bici, there is no braking allowed.....this wall was his and there was nothing in heaven or on earth to stop him...well except the one hour time limit on his bici rental. A man and his bici ; veni vidi, bici! (for those of you whose mothers did not teach Latin: I came, I saw, I bicycled!) Jim made two laps with time to spare for pictures...I'm not certain how leisurely they were.