We got up a little later than usual this morning - it hadn't been a particularly restful night's sleep, between getting up to Reggie twice (1.30am and 4am) and having Florence decide she needed human warmth and comfort (depsite it being around 24C in the bedroom) and either lying on my legs or snuggling right up next to me, I can't say I slept well!
Despite the forecast for rain and thunderstorms, we got up to a fairly clear morning and once again, Stuart, Chris and I were able to enjoy a leisurely breakfast on the patio together. We decided to head into Lucca after breakfast, saving today's dog walk until the afternoon, so after putting Reggie in his crate we got into the car and headed for Lucca. The sky seemed to get darker and darker the closer we got and when we exited the car park to climb onto the walls, we heard rumblings of thunder. We decided not to push our luck too far and after walking a short section of the walk we headed for the centre of the town, the logic being that there would be more places to shelter from the rain once the heavens opened. As we neared the centre, the heavens did indeed open, and we ran between the raindrops until we reached the Piazza Amfiteatro, where we sought shelter under the canopy of one of the restaurants and drank an Aperol spritz while waiting for the rain to abate.
When the rain finally did dry up a bit, and the rumbles of thunder faded away, we wandered around the streets of Lucca, taking in the San Michele church, Napoleon Square and other sights before stumbling across the wine bar that we'd spotted on several other occasions but never had the opportunity to visit since we'd always had Reggie with us previously. We decided to venture in, and enjoyed some delicious glasses of Brunello along with a platter of meat and cheese to share - it was a very classy joint and both food and wine were delicious. After that though, it really was time to head back to the car and get back home to check on Reggie.
Of course, Reggie was fine, but over the moon to realise that we'd come back home and hadn't left him alone forever, and when we told him we were going for walkies as well, he was beside himself. We decided to do the mill walk from Stiappa for a bit of a change of scene, so drove up the valley in that direction. When we got there, we found the path incredibly overgrown with tall grass and other vegetation - we were surprised how quickly everything had grown as it was only a matter of 5 or 6 weeks since we were last there. Reggie had a great time paddling in the stream when we reached the mill - it was the first time we'd really seen him embrace the idea of being in water and although he stopped short of swimming in the deeper water, he sploshed around in the shallower water with glee.
Walk done, we took the scenic route home (who am I kidding they're ALL scenic around here!) then changed into work clothes and set our guest to work again.
While Stuart used the chain saw to chop up large logs from the wood pile, Chris used the axe to split the logs and I used the chop saw to cut up the smaller pieces of wood - what a team!
After an hour or so of that, though, it was time to stand Chris down (he is on holiday, after all) and retreat to the patio for a glass of wine and to make a start on dinner - home-grown courgette and beetroot quinoa this evening!
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