Onward to Chianti Country

September 15th (sorry... four days behind with the pics)... the second day of riding was 113 km with another 1700 metres of climbing...

...past Orvieto - we're happy they didn't make us ride up the hill into town only to go back down the other side, there were enough other climbs.

We're now approaching Tuscany and into olive groves and wine country...

... and lunch was nicely amongst vineyards as seen from TDA's drone.

That night was in Chianciano Therme and again we got in again dead tired with barely enough time to change and get to dinner. Tough days, especially the steepness of the climbs when you can barely maintain 6 km/hr - it takes a long time to go 100+ km at that speed.

Stage 3 on Monday would have been 85 km to Sienna with the usual 1500+ metres of climbing. Seemed like a better idea to hitch a ride to lunch, then ride a mere 20 km (though still almost 400 metres of climbing) to get to Sienna and have enough time to enjoy its beautiful piazza and duomo.

Sunshine and pleasant temperature always with great views in the hills...

...and not long after lunch the first sight of Sienna.

Looking at it from there, it doesn't look like much of a climb into Sienna, but it was steep enough though not terribly long to climb up to the gate of the walled city of Sienna.

With just the short ride from lunch, we were at the hotel in the early afternoon and were so glad that we'd done that so that we could have a leisurely walk around town, enter the Piazza del Campo through a narrow passageway - and a second photo when we returned after dinner that night...
 
We enjoyed a refreshing drink and snack at one of the many restaurants around the edge, but it was just a beautiful place to be with people wandering everywhere or sunning themselves in the square. No vehicles, a few bikes, no noise.
On to the Duomo and I'll let the photos speak for themselves. So happy we laid off the bikes for part of the journey to have a few hours in the afternoon in town (and of course our backside appreciated a bit of time off not yet being used to sitting a a bike saddle for eight hours day after day).
The art work in the cathedral was amazing. The stain glass window at the back of the lower photo apparently was taken apart by hand and stored during the war to protect it from bombing, then painstakingly reassembled afterwards.
At the Duomo, we went up along the wall at the back (not the tower itself, for a good view over the city and over to the Piazza del Campo and the Torre del Mangia. The another great dinner that night after which we walked the town again to appreciate the sights at night.
On to Florence tomorrow but I'm not sure how quickly we'll upload the blog.

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