firenze

Blogger won't let us log in today, so this is a quick post from Firenze, where everything is closed for Republic Day.

Yesterday was a challenge... over 10,000 feet of climbing (the elevation chart was right), including a number of instances where the climbing gradient was proudly displayed on a street sign to be more than 10%. Those guys on the Giro weren't doing that much more! And then there was the 17% descent... that was fun, if absolutely terrifying. Rich hit 60km per hour at one point, which is, well, fast.

Wow.

Now we're in Firenze and running out of time. More (plus photos!) later.

xxx N

Nicky points to the first mountain

Oh so helpful, Nicky shows the first peak we climbed yesterday. (we
found a wifi spot in San Gimignano, hence the deluge of photos)

Today we head to Firenze. We're unsure about what the day has in
store, as the map and the elevation chart are telling different stories.

X

Siena-San Gimignano

Here's R at the top of a six-mile climb near Celsa today. We took a
roundabout route from Siena to San Gimignano, avoiding the main roads
and discovering many hills, shaded lanes, and beautiful farmhouses in
the process. There were some excellent descents (we broke the speed
limit a couple of times) ranging from 12 to 14%... Thankfully the
roads had dried off from yesterday's downpour.

Just before the much anticipated three-mile climb into San G, we came
across a birreria... which made us very happy. A couple of leffe
rouges, a shared bowl of ribollita and due espressi later & we powered
up a hill that would have killed at least half of us less than a week
ago.

Bagno Vignoni

Wet Agate at the town-centre-that-is-a-spring.

For Nick

Poppies

These poppies are everywhere, but these particular ones were on the
white (gravel) road from Montepulciano to Montalcino.

Rolling Tuscan hills

Night falls in Montalcino

Nicky really knows how to choose accommodations!

The view from our veranda in Montepulciano.

Bici waiting for a train in Rome

montalcino-siena

We're in Siena now, after a day spent climbing and coasting in the pouring rain. The route we took was absolutely beautiful, all little back roads and cypress trees and big, tuscan fields. Oh, and the 15% gradient hill that hit us. Granny gears! Nicky even got off her bike for a smidge. Just a smidge... she's sorry, Dolores, but she was in the pain cave.

We thought we'd try and have lunch on the cheap, and so bought lots of bread and arugula and tomatoes and cheese (leftover from our "on the cheap" dinner of bread, cheese... aged pecorino(mmm)... and a bottle of rosso di montalcino last night) but the torrential downpour that chose to rain on us had other ideas. It soaked our bread. It SOGGED our bread. We were sad, but secretly delighted as it gave us an excuse to run into a hyrbid cafe / game room / old man hangout and get (a) warm and (b) "pizza". Or the semblance thereof.

And so now we're in Siena, and we could eat horses if we ate such things (luckily for the horses, the Palio is not on today). We're staying in a youth hostel waaaay out of town and the busses stop running... wait, no, the busses stopped running already. So it's pici e taxi for us this evening.

Hungry. We're off...

xxx N&R

Montpulciano - Montalcino (the long way...)

When we sat down to plan this trip, we thought it would be best to stick to the smaller roads. Less traffic. Less trafficked. Great. Today we found out what the repercussions of following the "white roads" on the map can be. That would be: bad. You see, on the map of Tuscany we use as our base, the smaller roads are white, the medium roiads are yellow, and then there is a whole different logic for the big ones. White roads are gravel and do away with the notion of switchbacks and other leg (or engine) saving technologies in favor of an older, less sophisticated diagram: straight up. It was with great regret that we both found ourselves in our lowest gears (the granny gear...) as we plodded away at the beast leading up to Montechiello.

Oh. Did I mention it was raining?
It was raining.
And windy.
Really windy.

There is an old song called Cold Rain and Snow which was caught in Rich's head pretty much all day. And that pretty much defined today. Well. Almost (no snow...but wind)

(oh...and lots of hills)

The landscape is beautiful, of course, yadda yadda. We came upon a town which has as its piazza a thermal spring. It was really cute.



The climb into Montalcino was NOT fun. Until it was over. We are quite proud of our 5807 ft of climbing today, though we know that there will be 20,000 more before we leave Italy.

Oy.

Food Report

Nothing new on the gelato front, sadly, but we have had some fantastic meals. In Montepulciano, we visited El Borgo Buio, which is a locally-sourced, organic, blah di blah, slow food establishment. And it was really, really good. Let us make your mouths water: pici with porcini mushrooms, gnocchi with radicchio and walnut pesto, grilled vegetables preserved in olive oil and served warm with ricotta and whole red peppercorns... We were there for hours, since the owner, an affable chap by the name of Pier Luigi, kept waffling away to us about life, the universe, and bicycling. And so we had some grappa, and some coffee, and the evening was altogether splendid.

Also on the food front, our friend Renee made us an amazing sampler of camping/energy foods to bring with us... today's pistachio nougat - which was even better than it sounds - saved Nicky at the top of yet another hill. We were both big fans of the cheese and rosemary biscuits with dried apple, and they travelled all this way with us in perfect condition. Hurrah for chef friends and life saving food!

PS You think about strange things as you climb hills. Yesterday, Rich sang a song to Nicky's teeth (in French, which seems to have become his first language since we got to Italy) as he scaled a col. Today Nicky found herself punning, which to those of you that know her, must seem rather odd. Her goal for the trip? Keeping the bonkasaurus at bay...

Oh, and the pizza's really good in Rome.

Chiusi - Montepulciano

We have photos, so many photos. We promise to upload them as soon as someone unlocks their wireless connection... maybe Friday in Siena?

So, the riding. We got to Chiusi and it was something like 31 degrees C (which is about 354 farenheit, in Nisa calculations)and, well, we hadn't a clue how to get out of town. Problem with Google Maps is that it likes to name all the streets. Problem with Italy is that it doesn't. Anyway, some mediocre Italian later we had witnessed a man make a 'bumpy bumpy' gesture with his hand and look at us like we were bonkers, and we were on our way to Sarteano. Sorry, on our way UP.

It's hilly round these parts. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Day One was only 20 miles, as we didn't actually start riding til four in the afternoon, but we climbed 3230 ft just.like.that.

You come to resent the downhills round here, too. They're too twisty-curvy to be all-out fun fests, and all you can think about on the way down is the fact that all the towns here are up, up, up. We both considered telling Tuscany that we'd be happier with simpler flats, but decided not to. Watching each other suffer is one of the joys of marriage, right?

Oh, and it's beautiful. Bright scarlet poppies everywhere, green and yellow fields, those crazy Tuscan trees... and the farmhouses! It feels so cliched to say it, but we probably wouldn't object to retiring here.

Having Left Rome...

We were stuck in an un-air conditioned bike room of the outbound train (2.5 hours after we planned to leave) with a crazy Canad. He was the campaign manager for the Green Party there. He was in week five of a seven week ride through God Knows Where on his own - and he was still running things for The Party back home (and checking his oil stocks???) after his daily ride. He liked to tell us things. We listened politely, happy to be on our way to the first bike miles of the trip.

Or so we thought.

N*R

Leaving Roma

Dear Roma,

We do not understand your one-way street system. Please explain. It makes it a little bit hard to cycle through your streets carrying 40lbs of extra weight and get to the station to catch a train on time.

And then you charged Nicky 70 cents to pee!

And where on earth did that uomo come from? The one with the sleeveless shirt and hairy shoulders? Was he one of yours, Roma dear? He wanted Nicky to come away with him, or if she couldn't do that, at least to watch youtube videos of him on the Web...

Stick to the gatti, Roma. You know what you're doing there.

Love,

Nicky & Rich

My bike

Bici est Ici!!

For those concerned: my bike was waiting for me in our room when we got home from lunch today. It was smoking a cigarette and demanding to know what all the fuss was about.

"Nice was beautiful."
"Oh? I've never been."
"Shame."

We leave tomorrow early in the morning by train to Chiusi. From there we ride through the countryside to Montepulciano. Rumor has it there's wine in them there hills... Hopefully all the dings and loose bolts will shake free during the first few miles and we'll be cruising.


R

I gatti della area sacra argentina

350 cats live in this shelter, which must be the most fabulous I've
ever seen. It's a sacred area of Roman ruins, right in the middle of
the city. The cats are all vaccinated & spayed / neutered, and they
get to hang out amidst the ruins and the trees, in sun or in shade,
day and night. Of course we've visited twice already, and may well
return a third time...

N

Nicky and I: Bicker-fest caught in Vatican mosaic