Delicious food and a gift for Yoshi IV

I awake early at the classy San Lucca Palace and, after attending to my beard, make my way down to the restaurant for breakfast. 

This is a truly amazing breakfast. Smoked salmon, salami, ham, beef carpaccio, two melon varieties, yoghurts, foccacia, tomatos, balsamic and olive oil. Oh, and four AMAZING cheeses. Wow. Hotels don't nornally meet expectations. 

Lunch was amazing too. A seafood/clam-esk pasta followed by seared tuna. Restaurant name to be confirmed. Watch this space. We had a wine recommendation (or three) (admittedly I did not sample these)

Coffees mix well with booze here. 

Dinner was back within the city walls and was perfect on every level. The company present was on form, and the host and hostess - they wore many the hats of owners, chefs, service - made the evening truly special. The service was second to none and the food and wine was perfect. 

Note the home made bread. And home made sauces. And home made pasta. And home made gnocci. And I wouldn't be surprised it was home made cuttlery. 

I'll confirm the restaurant names tomorrow. 

To top off the day I walk along the old city walls to visit a Piaggio scooter shop and managed to get a quote for two (of the six) panels I want to replace on Yoshi IV (my Vespa GTS 250 ie), and actually purchase a much needed handle-bar terminatori; this was a 30 minute conversation where retail-staff and customer did not share a common language. It was amusing, and was incredibly effecient. It was an amasingly fruitful chat. I learned about where my scooter serial number resides on the chassis, and am explained and shown the document all scooters in Italy must carry. In return I expound English translations for various scooter components and random words. I get quotes for parts and learn the Italian names for parts I never knew the names of, like terminatori, and:

I also learn my scooter is 'Classico Rossi'. 

Despite the language barrier I feel I communicated better with Serchio Motori (Lucca, Italy) than I do with Motorad on Vivian St (Wellington, New Zealand) back home (sorry guys, I want to like you but you guys took four weeks to charge me $600 for a repair, and as soon as I exited the shop it was obvious you had not worked on her - I want to like you, but screw you too).