Blog Archive

Wednesday 18 October 2017

Roughing it in Italy




After 4 days of Tuscan cycling we have arrived in our most exotic hotel accommodation yet. The dimly lit resident’s lounge of the town centre SAN NICCOLO Hotel is a frescoed delight. We are, after all, now closing on Michelangelo country.


All of our accommodation has been fabulous and, sometimes, fabulously cheap. The price being one of the pleasures of cycling through the vineyards and olive groves of Tuscany at the end of the season. 


Most days we pedal around 50km and on our most strenuous day we managed 1,200m of ascent. The hills hold no fears for electric legs but Sally and I remain firmly rooted in the age of steam. For us the hills of Tuscany mean sweat and toil as electric legs and electric lungs pass effortlessly by with the merest hum betraying their pedal pushing assistant. We catch them up at the hill crests where they wait patiently enjoying the autumn colours in the Tuscan landscape.


Lunch is usually in a medieval town centre preceded by some interminable battle with Italian one way systems and mischievous signposting. Asking for directions, as we did disastrously last night, usually leads to a long and unplanned descent down steep, cobbled streets and then a long climb back up to find we  were in the right place to start with.


We are cycling through Chianti Country and the route is punctuated by expansive vineries and invitations to taste their ware. A fine bottle of Chianti accompanied last night’s meal and I am sure there will be more to follow tonight.













Sunday 15 October 2017

Electric Lungs & Electric Legs

Electric Lungs & Electric Legs





On the river Arno flood plain it was barely possible to discern the difference between eBikers Rosemarie and Seppl and Luddites -relying on lungs - Sally and Simon. It helped that Ro picked up some thorns that did for her front tyre twice. But on the first hills of Tuscany they switched on their electric legs and electric lungs and effortlessly shot past us leaving us sweating and puffing in their wake. The good news is we had the map so inevitably, at the crest of every hill, the hares and the tortoises met up again.




In all today we pedalled 50km after a late start building the bikes after their journey with Jet2.com. A little mist swathed the pastures around Pisa but it was thin enough to let the sun burn through and, as it did so, the temperature rose to the early twenties. We dodged on and off roads to add miles to our day and this included following a long meander of the river Arno on top of a flood defence dyke. That’s where Rosemarie found her punctures.





On Sunday most Tuscan bars and restaurants are closed at this time of year but we did find a lovely lunch in the centre of Pontedera where we pondered where to stay over an Americano. On Booking.com Rosemarie found a ludicrously cheap b&b which we pedalled up to though the first of the Tuscan hills. The B&B was idyllically perched on the summit with the valley below lit up in the afternoon sun. A perfect place to rest the bikes and recharge the batteries.











Friday 13 October 2017

The bikes are boxed

The bikes are boxed 


The bikes are boxed and we will soon be Tuscany bound to rendezvous with eBikers Rosemarie and Seppl. They will have electrons pushing the pedals whereas we will be relying on muscles made flaccid by a summer of sailing. Plenty of excuses then to call a halt on a regular basis to top up the batteries and the caffeine levels.


As hurricane Ophelia bears down on the Irish Sea we will hop on a Jet2.com flight to Pisa to begin a leisurely pedal around Tuscany. The weather forecast for Italy is for a cycle friendly 22 degrees and light winds so we have packed  very little in deference to our atrophied musculature. Packed little apart from the bikes that is. They have been dismantled and squeezed into to big, airline friendly, bike boxes that now fill the back of our estate car.


So tomorrow we have to manoeuvre 60kg of bike and box through the crowds at Manchester Airport and somehow shoehorn them into a taxi to our B&B in Pisa. Then an evening of oily hands and bike re-assembly in readiness to take on the eBikers. Let the battle begin!