We are following signs to the Coop – I’ve seen it on the map, so know it is straight down the road from where we have parked. Unfortunately, it is Sunday, and the Coop is closed – as is the Lidl we passed on the way. Hmmmm….never thought about the Sunday thing. Oh well. So, onto our next adventure: The Oil and Wine road.
The map that we got in the tourist point showed this Oil and Wine road (O&WR) that appeared to go up into the hills and little towns above Lucca and past lots of villas, museums and forts. Looks great, except for one thing – this map isn’t exactly detailed – no road names, numbers – just a big wine colored line snaking up and down through the hills around Lucca. Well, how hard can it be to find?
Ha! That’s the big question – especially with Alice! We keep putting in towns that appear to be close to the road – but still can’t find any signs pointing us in the O&WR direction. We go toward Ponte A Moriano – nope – no O&WR. But – bonus – we do find an Esselungo grocery store open. So – at least we can stock up on beer, wine and sausage. That’s a positive!
But we’re still looking for that freaking O&WR. So, we plug in Camigliano. It looks like we might intersect the O&WR on the way. OMG – well, it’s awesome and fun, but these roads Alice is sending us down are cow paths! Once off the main road – there’s not enough room for cows to pass, much less cars!
Ed navigates the cow paths superbly! Even when the switch backs come up without warning and the cars approach with nowhere to go. It’s a crazy drive. We finally find the O&WR by chance, and we turn of Alice and begin following the signs. But, by the time we get to Sant’Andrea in Caprile, we’ve had enough. So we stretch our legs for a bit, take some pix, and hop back in the car to go back to Livorno.
Unfortunately, in order to get back to the Autostrada, Alice has only back roads for us – and back roads that are really cow paths. OMG. All we an do is laugh, because it’s Alice – and well – we’re used to this! She sends us down roads that end in a church, but suddenly turn right and there’s a, well, cow path!
Then we go in between huge stone walls, and past little miniature towers…
Past abandoned churches, narrow lanes, and gorgeous countryside views….
…and more cow paths!
Finally we manage to get back to the A11 and the A12, and we ship right back to Livorno and the port. There is construction and a diversion, so our exit is closed, we follow the diversion signs and finally make it back into the port. But, as per usual, we get totally lost in that stupid port! I thought I knew where we were going, but I missed a turn to the pier – so we end up circling the ferry embarkation twice. Then we finally plug Alice back in (because she normally takes us in the wrong direction in the port) and she gets us going in the right direction – and we figure out the rest. Crud – maybe one day, we’ll figure out this port without getting lost. Maybe!
We drop the car, and get back onboard. They’re scanning on the ship – not in the port – and darn! – we get busted with our sausages! There are signs saying no food is allowed to be brought back onboard, and of course we’ve ignored those. Never had a problem before – in 12 days – well, not today. They snag our Grocery story sausage (not the market sausage), the security guy won’t even touch them. I asked if they’d keep them for us until we disembark, but no, and I have to throw them away. Poop! Well, no more food. Thank heavens they didn’t grab the chocolates or any of the other stuff we’ve managed to get aboard. 
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