Out of Florence and towards Venice

What  with "rest" days in Rome and Florence and relatively easy riding in between, the heave out of Florence came as a bit of a shock to the system.  At a steady 9-10-11% it was actually a bit steeper than what we've been getting used to. 

The reward was not only great downhill hoons, but also a night in a hotel.

This morning the announcement was "good morning people..today you have the first of the flat days..virtually no climbing.....its also pretty well the last  flat day also......."

So today we had 152km of flat, flat flat land, with the only rises in the road being over canals, rivers (including the Po) railway lines and other roads.  it reminded me very much of where I grew up in the UK ...the Lincolnshire fens.  We rode it the only way you can..in big groups with strong motoring legs on the front and the rest of us sucking the wheel in front...... 

No pix..

Emilio-Romagna

Day 26- Castel San Pietro Terme to Chioggia...153km, 373m climbing..tomorrow and we're not looking forward to it..hot days.  We're having brekky at 6 to get an early start....with lashings of factor 30 on.

Seen on the road again..Tuscany

One of the value added aspects of the ride has been the wild flowers all along the road. Most of them we’ve been able to identify, but these have us all stumped.

I’m not sure this following pix will help, but…any ideas?..def NOT poppies..we’ve got those pegged…

even the veggie shops are special

and although the hills aren’t as soul destroyingly long as in the south (or maybe we’re just alot fitter now)we still have this situation, where the road ahead is NOT the one we want to have to ride up…

Florence

Well, I guess I’d better post a coupla arty farty pix to please the more civilised amongst us…. 

ok, that’s enough…. back to normal..

transport and 2 wheeled rules:

 

hmm!..

and car parking remains much the same as in the south:-

at lights AND on a pedestrian crossing!!!!!

No idea of the date or day, but we're in Florence!

 Great riding here in Tuscany..we've moved out of the 15+km uphill slogs followed by downhills in sketchy road surfaces to shorter, sharper uphills one after the other followed by GREAT dowhhills on smooth, well cambered roads.  Yahoo/yeeha! worthy.

With the 2 Kiwis gone  the awesome threesome have had to pickup the navigational duties and have  managed to stay focussed and on course with a high level of skill (unlike our revered leader and organisor who managed to get lost the other day leading his usual string of cyclists, who once they were with him, stopped bothering to navigate ;-) We''ve also managed to arrive in first into lunch and have beaten the so-called "A team" a number of times..nothing competitive about us of course and no comments please about the fact that we set off  straight after brekkywell before the official start time!

Sienna was great,well worth a visit and very steep..walking anywhere is an added challenge after days and days on the bike

  and we were lucky enough to catch the Giraffe group doing their flag waving thing.

 but in the end ..walking gets to be a bit tiring. 

Bad things come in threes

First up yesterday was the realisation that my tent had broken..it was fine when I packed it away in the morning, but 2 poles where totally cactus when I unpacked it at night.  Wilbert and Richard put in alot of time in  and jury rigged it, but sadly there’s no way I'm going to take it home with me as planned..the upside being that’s 4 kgs less luggage to worry about.
The second bad thing happened yesterday morning in Siena…. I dropped my iPod in the toilet..luckily while it was still clean(!)..but now it’s playing up a bit…and is more than likely officially dead.
And the third thing?..my Samsung aussie phone has decided to die..no reason given, just turned up its toes …….
I think I can hear an iPhone coming my way….

but wait there's more..I managed to leave my Garmin chest strap in the showers…but hours later, when I realised the omission I shot back like a bullet out of a gun …it was still there…..phew!  think fatigue is setting in...

The name tells us all......Capodimonte to Castel del Piano

any Italian town with the word "castel" or "monte" in it tells us we have an uphill heave to get there...that is over and above the standard uphill heave that is part and parcel of any ride here in Italy. If you really don't want to climb or descend then Italy is not for you.

Yesterday's ride from Rome started off with a 4km peleton to get us out of the confusimg and busy area and after that we were yet again climbing and descending, skills all of us have improved over the past week or so.

Lunch was at a very nice spot and gave me the chance to take pix of the 2 following signs both of which made me smile

 

 

memo to self..must stop molesting animals!!!

Later on I plan on doing a post on our campsites and the facilities in each, but today we had a shower block that contained multiple ensuites..ie the toilet, basin and  shower were in one very small cubicle.  Since we're lucky to score a seat on the toilet, there is never in a million years going to be  a lid on it which meant that I spent the entire shower trime  making double sure I didn't drop the soap into the toilet!!!