Day 12- Viareggio

This morning we had a vote, whether to take the train into the hills or to the beach. The beach won, so we took a quick 20 minute train ride to the coastal town of Viareggio. The first stop off the train was a bakery/ cafe for coffee and treats. Penny would only be fed by Ellis.

Next stop was a big children's park area with dozens of closed rides and games (like mini put, bumper cars etc.) The whole town had Wasaga-beach like vibes, except probably a bit more upscale, and it's winter so everything is closed. Luckily we found an open playground after passing all of the other closed children's activities.

It was another nautical themed playground where the boys came up with elaborate trips to take on the ship.

Penny made a friend at the park by sharing the yogurt containers we'd brought as sand pails.

After the park, we went down to the promenade that runs parallel to the beach. In summer, the beach is accessed through private beach clubs that rent umbrellas and lounge chairs. Those are all closed in November.

A lot of the restaurants are also closed at this time of year. The one we found that was open was probably a bit too fancy for us, but it was a nice location looking out over the beach. The kids did well to be polite and well behaved at the restaurant

The beach itself is a huge expanse of sand between the water line and the closed beach clubs. We mostly had the beach to ourselves today.

It definitely wasn't swimming weather, and was too wavy for the kids anyways, but it was a pleasant sunny ~18C, good weather for playing in the sand.

The tide was coming in as we were playing, so the kids had a fun time trying to build castles that would be plowed over by the incoming waves- without getting themselves wet.

Inevitably, someone (Oscar) got a soaker in this process.

We then walked the rest of the promenade, down to the harbour with some very fancy yachts.

We grabbed some gelato on the way back to the train station. It was actually one of those make your own yogurt sundae places, not exactly authentically Italian, but the kids loved picking toppings for their ice cream.

As the sun set, it was back to the train station and back to Lucca. It's hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day here in Lucca before we move on to Venice.

In exciting Vespa counting news, the kids saw their 100th Vespa right at the train station. They had to take a picture of the occasion.