Two weeks ago we found ourselves finishing off midterms & coming up on the weekend before our educational field trip to Istanbul.  So, exhausted from studying our brains out & looking ahead at a week of traveling in Turkey, we wanted nothing more than to stay home, relax, & catch up on our Oscar movies (turns out we didn’t get through all of them…sorry Nebraska & 12 Years a Slave!).  However, no matter how exhausted we were, we didn’t want to waste a travel weekend as we had very few left.  With little time to plan & a sudden craving for gelato, we booked train tickets & a cute little bed & breakfast in Lucca, Italy a small town in Tuscany.

Lucca turned out to be perfect.  Surrounded by city walls, not only can you take a beautiful walk or a bike ride on top of the wall, but it is impossible to get lost when wandering.  We didn’t need to book any tours or fight any crowds, instead we just explored the city, rented bikes & ate as much gelato as possible under the Tuscan sun.