La Bella Italia

Today’s stats Miles. 52 Climbing 26m Time in saddle 3:00 Sadly this will be my last riding post for this trip. No Photos today.  My dad passed away last night and I need to fly home tomorrow for his funeral next week.  As you’ll understand today wasn’t the greatest day for me but after an ok night in a hotel I decided I’d cycle this morning. I knew it was a long, flat day but I thought it would help keep my mind occupied.  As promised it was very flat and windy but at least it was warm and the sun was shining through broken clouds.  The group was quite chirpy and very sympathetic to my position at breakfast which was greatly appreciated.  We set off on time and at a fair pace as everyone wanted to take advantage of the flat roads for a change. A pace line of about 12 soon formed.  I tucked into the line and did my bit when required but to be honest I wasn’t feeling the love this morning and was finding it hard to stay m...

Todays Stats Miles. 70 Climbing. 1953m Time in saddle. 4:58hr True to form for Bike Dreams the day after a rest day has been testing.  After a wet rest day we were all hoping for a dry day today but when we woke up it was fairly clear that although the clouds were a bit lighter than yesterday the hills were still shrouded with mist which meant in all possibility we were going to get wet.  We actually set off in good conditions. It was a nice warm temperature and although muggy not wet.  About a mile into the ride the first climb of the day started and as we had been told “it went straight up”.  The first couple of miles were the steepest of the day as we climbed away from Florence but the local traffic helped take your mind off things as they hooted and tooted at us. At one point our route took us the wrong way up a country road, still climbing, and the odd motorist went barmy waving their hands and shouting at us, but we carried on anyway...

I’ve spent a lovely few hours in Florence. A groups of us met up for breakfast and headed into town for a walking tour. It was well worth it as it’s a beautiful city and loads to see and we wouldn’t have known where to start.  After the tour which lasted the best part of 3 hours we had a quick lunch and a few of us headed back to the camp site.  I managed to get to an ATM and the shop for some bits and pieces and the good news is my Barclaycard is working although no refund yet.  The bad news is it been raining on and off all day, we got rained on a couple of time during the tour, and it’s due to rain all night and most of tomorrow. Thankfully it’s still warm though.   We set off tomorrow for a 3 day leg to Venice. Tomorrow’s route is quite hilly, not mountains though, and then the next two days are very flat with some ferry travel thrown in just for fun.  The weather forecast is pretty grim for the next 18 hrs or so but...

Today’s Stats Miles 43 Climbing 858m Time in saddle. 2:53hrs After the exertions of yesterday we had a quiet night in with a pizza and salad and hit the sack at about 10pm. Most of the other campers were in cabins so the campsite was nice and quiet.  Sadly the night was another wet one. It rained from about 1am until about 6am but after that it held off for most of the day and got progressively warmer and brighter as the day went on.  As today was a really short day we had a lie in and we didn’t leave until 9am. The weather held off and other than a few spots here and there we had a nice ride through some beautiful countryside with two or three tasty little climbs to get the lungs working.  My legs were feeling it a bit after mixing it with the big guns yesterday and it took me a while to get going but I managed to hold my own and we had a pleasant ride in a small group until coffee at about 12 miles.  After coffee I made a fool of my se...

Today’s Stats Miles 57 Climbing 1392m Time in saddle 4:01hrs.  Last night was a bit of a sad affair as we found out that one of the riders had lost their Father after he had a heart attack.  Don, who has riden the whole trip, and his wife, who only arrived in Rome, didn’t want to sit in camp and dwell on things too much so his Aussie friends took them into town. We were invited as “Honarary Poms” so we joined them and walked into town and had a few drinks returning to camp at about 10pm.  I got straight to sleep but was woken by rain at about 1:30am which kept me awake on and off for the rest of the night.  The camp was a bit better behaved this morning and no one got up too early.  I got as much done as I could inside the tent and then at the last minute before breakfast took the tent down. It was very wet and covered in pine needles etc which meant it would be soaking when we made camp again st Siena.  The rain eased a little d...

Today’s Stats Miles. 47 Climbing. 1341m Time in saddle. 3:27hrs Today was the first of two shorter days as we head towards Florence. Last nights meal was superb, fish with prawns and broccoli and spuds. How the staff do it I don’t know but it’s very welcome I can assure you I was in my tent by 8:30pm and phoned home etc. All was quiet when at about 9:30pm Giuseppe decided he would ring home whilst using hands free. We then witnessed a shouting match as two verbose Italians tried to get a word in and talked over each other for about 10 minutes. It was clear from the comments from the tents it was not appreciated and eventually someone had a word and he quietened down.  Today got off to a very early start as someone started getting up at 4:50am and packing away their tent. This obviously set a few others off and before you knew it half the camp was getting up and most were packed away by 6am.  It clearly pissed a few off as there were comments at breakfast which is due to be ser...