The morning after tha ball everyone enjoyed a nice sleep in, seeing as how the events of the day didn’t start until the afternoon. I spent the morning sitting around chatting to the others at the hotel, and then a few of us decided to go for a bike ride around the ring wall of Lucca. Such a nice thing to do!
This day we were going to be spending outside of Lucca, visiting two of the many villas and estates that surround the city (I believe the guide who showed us around the day before mentioned there being no less than 400 of these grand villas around Lucca! I could be wrong there but I believe that’s the number he mentioned).
After about a 20 minute bus ride we arrived at the first place we were visiting, Villa Reale. We all disembarked the bus and spent the next couple of hours strolling around this most beautiful garden, a garden the size of a big park! There was a little lake (always a good thing for setting a good mood and getting nice pictures), a stream, little paths, grand fountains and pools with big fish in them, a garden built in the shape of a theatre with both stage and stalls for the audience, and of course some statues as actors! Old run down houses in the first stages of becoming ruins, and a little pleasure house decorated all over with sea shells and flint stones, and which had some kind of water spurting things in the floor which Donald discreetly took charge over, making sure everyone who ventured inside was greeted by a spurt of water. Highly amusing to see everyone’s reaction!
The gardens were beautiful, and it was lovely strolling around there. But it was a very hot day, and having brought nothing to drink along I was quite happy to sit down in the air conditioned bus again for a few minutes as we drove of to the next place.
Because I have so many pictures that I want to post I have just decided that I’m going to have to make this into two seperate posts, so I shall tell you about the rest of the day next time and leave you with some pictures here. 
I think this may well be my favorite of all the pictures I took on this trip!
Aah! Just look at those pretty Spencers!
The beautiful Irina, ever photogenic!
Uniforms!
A lone abandoned parasol…
Thilda, inside the shell/stone pleasure house
Me, in my newest dress, finished just a few days before I left for Italy
