Day 4 Chiusi to Castglion Fibocchi - ride total 288 km 2,991 m

60 km of our ride today was on a trail beside a drainage canal so was totally flat and although it was through open country for some of it we were fortunate we were on the shady side of the trees. Even so much of it was exposed to the sun and the heat. After about 3 hours I stopped to apply more sunscreen to my calves and legs as I could feel the sun burning happening especially my right calf - we were heading due north and the sun was coming at us directly from the south east. We are happy we are heading north as we would be getting fried if heading south directly in to the sun.

Because we were out on the flat plain the trail did not pass through any town or village so we did not have a morning tea so instead riding on to our lunch spot. After having our share of pizza and pasta over the last week the mixed salad the Cafe had was just the best along with a couple of glasses of freshly squeezed orange.

This area appears to have been swamp land that has been drained and is growing huge acreage of vegetables and orchards some of which are on a very large scale. I saw huge paddocks of tomatoes (Italian tomatoes of course), asparagus and pear orchards. All m of the crops and orchards looked well farmed.

There are no fences, so very little free range livestock, we did pass a farm though with a huge livestock shed and equally as large fed shed, both of which had rooves covered in in solar panels. Further on we past an electricity substation and there too they had quite an extensive array of solar panels.

I did see some free range cattle within a temporary paddock created with electric fencing the noticeable thing being the two water tankers with attached water trough that the farmer had taken to the paddock. Water, clean water in particular is something I haven't seen in the rivers and streams and must also be a challenge for the cities and towns. Having said that most towns have free flowing drinking fountains from which we the locals filling up there drinking bottles or using to cool themselves down.

There was very little climbing involved in today's ride and it wasn't too long so we made it to our B&B for the night by 2:00 p. m.