The Retirees go Abroad – Viareggio and a day at the beach

Florence had been such a hot day and we had enjoyed our swim at Monterosso al Mare so when Kerry learned of a beach at Viareggio from Robert’s sister in law Jane, we knew how we would be spending that day. Jane has been living in Lucca for a number of years and when we called upon her, her sister from the UK was visiting. Jane will be moving back to Australia and her sister was quite upset that distance would make their catch ups less frequent. We had a relatively peaceful drink at the Mercato Cafe of the dead chook except when any one squeezed the “dead chook” which then emitted a squealing sound. Kerry learned about Aperol, ginger ale and prosecco that afternoon.

Our drive to Viareggio was very pleasant. We avoided the toll roads and saw some of the villages on the way. There were pleasant river crossings, typical villages and reminders of the past along the most circuitous route imaginable. Nevertheless we got to the beach.

Along the road in front of the beach was an enormous market then a line of shops then the little kingdoms. Again the beach was divided into little kingdoms. The day was hot and getting hotter so we wasted no time in selecting Narcisa to set up camp. Narcisa is a family run business with lovely flower gardens to greet you and grandma on the front desk who “no speaka de English” but her son does. The son, grey haired and about our age, comes over in his DTs (dick togs) and gardening gloves and gives us the sales pitch and throws in some extras (two lounges instead of one) which was very nice. We agree to rent the umbrella and go to the designated change rooms (a store room most of the time) to change into our swimming gear.

We made our way to the designated umbrella and settled in. The beach was sandy and at least 100m wide with umbrellas as far as the eye could see. We were comforted to see the life guard at his post. We strolled into the water. It was a little warmer than Monterosso but not as clear and not as deep. We walked out about 20 m and the water was barely above my waist. Even so we were in the water for about 5 minutes and a fish jumped from the water. It looked about a kilo in size and the shape of a mullet. This was to happen at least half a dozen times whilst we were paddling and lolling in the water. Then I noticed that something in the water was bumping into us. Jellyfish! Blue with a small black fringe, they danced between our legs. Some the size of a twenty cent piece and others up to the size of a man’s fist. I managed to catch one or two for a closer look.

After swimming we went back to the office to get money for lunch at the café on the premises. We ran into the son again and told him of the sighting of the fish jumping and he looked at us in complete amazement and said “what out there – fishes jumping”. He then said “I don’t know nothing about fishes you ask my brother the life guard he knows about fishes”. Well I thought it hilarious. The astonishment that something lived in the water and the fact that the life guard was as old as us – not that there was much rough surf for him to contend with.

After lunch we thought we would go back to the markets and stroll through and eat an ice cream. No such luck. The markets had finished and the shops had closed for lunch time siesta. But we got to witness some pretty incredible technology in the way in which these stalls were set up. Most had vans with a large box on the roof. In this box was the awning and using just a remote control the stallholder opened and closed his shop. Oh and there was some other equipment caught my eye. See if you can find it in the photos.

We had heard that there was a free concert on in the amphitheatre in Lucca so that night we made our way into the amphitheatre by bus. Surprisingly the bus was free so a good start to the night. I made an error of judgment as to which stop to get off and we ended up walking through the city where we encountered a shop with a weaving loom in the front window and the weaver hard at work. No sale items though the price tags all had three digits.  We selected our restaurant Bistro Bar L’Emiliana and settled in for dinner and the show at 9.00pm. Well it was not much of a show – a jazz trio playing classical music (Puccini) – not to my taste.

We finished about 10.00pm and knowing that the last bus had long since gone we asked the waiter to organise a taxi. No problems. He told us to wait at our table and the cab would come into the amphitheatre to collect us. The amphitheatre was wall to wall restaurants, jazz band audience and kids playing on bikes etc. This I had to see. As I expected the cab was a no show. The waiter clearly embarrassed by the no show went in search of the taxi with us in tow. We found our cab with the driver trying to explain to an American with pins through his left leg that he could not just hail a cab when it had been booked. The driver made the Yank sit down and told him he would be back to get him.

We piled into the cab, gave the driver the address and settled back but not for long for this fellow took off at enormous speed through the narrow streets filled with pedestrians and bikes and then raced a scooter and another car to be the first out the city gate. Even though I sat in the front with the driver, I could feel Kerry’s grip on the cab door growing ever tighter and nervous laughter coming from Kerry and Veronica in the backseat. The taxi driver explained that he hated “romantic drivers” – people casually driving because they did not have timing issues and a family to feed from driving a cab; he said he had already had 4 expressos and there would be many more before the night was through. Well we made it home but felt like we had just got off a ride at Disney World. So the night ended on a happy note – we were still alive and on holiday.