Day 5 - Castglion Fibocchi to Firenze - ride total 369 k, 3,732 m

Nothing about the ride today and all about Firenze (Florence).

It's amazing how two people from Christchurch who know each other and both happen to be over in Europe riding bikes and  both happen to be overnighting here in Firenze.

It was great to meet up with young Tom (half my age) and share a meal together at our hostel before heading out onto the town to have our desert gealato and a walk around this amazing city, quite different from the other Italian cities we have visited. Streets full of people out enjoying themselves and no motor vehicles.

Not only did we share our table with Tom here at the hostel but the only other two guys also out on the terrace were a couple of young fellows from Christchurch... 

A rest day or touristy day for us tomorrow. 
















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Travel Day 1

Image
 An early start at 2:45 a.m. to head to the airport at 3:30 and I'm super fortunate to have Mike my neighbour take me to the airport in his van which is just ideal for a bike box. And yes, that is correct my neighbour took me to the airport! How lucky am I to have neighbour's like this. Arrived in Melbourne at 8:00 and have had a seven hour wait for our flight to Abu Dhabi. Peter met up with airside and we'll travel the next two legs of the journey through to Rome together. Note to self and others: take an old tea towel as cabin luggage. That way when you have a long wait in transit you've got something better than three chux cloths to dry yourself off after having a shower. A shave, a fresh set of undies and tee shirt and you feel fresh again. Then it's off to the duty free store to "freshen up" a little (I now smell like a cologne cocktail"... Why the tea towel? That is something that can go in the bin along with the across Tasman undies, sox and te
Read more

Travel Day 5

Image
We headed out of Rome today on the 52 km ride I'd mapped out for us, it took us past the Pantheon and then up to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. They would be nice to see if it weren't for the hoards of us tourists! Crowds like that I don't "do" and as for waiting in a queue in order to shuffle through the place shoulder to shoulder is not my thing. Fortunately what is my thing is hopping on the bike and getting away from all this crowds so of of town we headed. Par for the course meant that our route took us out in to the c ountryside - yes I can find countryside close to most see European cities. We past a goat herder looking after his herd, a moon of sheep sheltering from the heat under a bridge that didn't really want to move aside for us and paddocks of barley. I managed to find some single track that took us along a river stop bank for about 7 km's before getting back on a sealed bike path. Unfortunately the single track took us through som
Read more

Travel Day 3

Image
Today was our first full day here where we cold play the tourist part. After our breakfast up on the rooftop we sorted out our ride, downloaded the route to our Garmins' and headed out - as well as a good means of getting from A to B and around the various attractions we wanted to see the ride was also going to serve as a shake down ride to ensure our bikes are going as well as they were when we left NZ. All the bikes went well and it proved to be a good decision to use them to get around as we can go places quickly (compared with walking) and without the same physical exertion being reqired. Our tour took us past more of the famous sites however we had to pass by St Peter's Square and the Vatican without any form of Papal blessing so I expect my life will continue much as it has in the past. We had a morning tea stop in what looked like the Central Park and luunch in a cafe that was just around the corner from the Hostel.
Read more