Day 76

Dragging Tristan to Lucca, originally uploaded by Ryan Runs Europe.

42 Kilometers.
In the morning, we woke up and took turns rinsing off in the little sink that was in the storage closet. Around 10 we called Angela and she let us in to have some breakfast with her. Tristan took a shower, and we ate some bananas and cereal before putting on our shoes and saying our goodbyes.
We had decided the night before to change my original itinerary to head slightly north towards Lucca (instead of Pontedera) on our way to Pisa. Tristan and his family have vacationed in Lucca in the past, so we were heading towards a place that Tristan knew well and where everything was worked out before we arrived (Tristan was on his Blackberry sending e-mails back and forth to his family who were giving him the info of who we would meet, where we would eat and where we would sleep).
The trip to Lucca was long, and it took us an incredibly long time to get there. We did a lot of walking and talking, and Tristan caught me up on a lot of things that I had missed being away from friends and news for two and a half months.
Before getting into town, we spent a good twenty minutes trying to stage the above photo of me dragging Tristan into Lucca...balancing my camera on the guard rail on the side of the busy road, supporting it with pieces of trash and grass that we found nearby. It seemed like a good symbol for the day.
After passing through the city walls (around 8 pm) we met up with a family friend of Tristan, Giovanni and his wife, and we sat around talking, hydrating and eating some awesome grapes. Afterwards, Tristan and I took a shower and we went out to an awesome dinner where we stuffed ourselves with meats, pasta and wine in the cool night air. Somehow we still found space for some gelato and beers afterwards, and we went to sleep without washing our clothes for the second night in a row. For me, it was really nice to have an easy day of rest, with good food and a comfortable bed. For Tristan, well...I think he was pretty wiped out.