Pisa

Friday 20 September - On to Pisa. We could have taken the bike trail and had nice easy riding, no hills, as it followed the river. But in true TDA fashion, they found a 225-metre high hill to climb instead and as a special bonus, the gradient was 19%. Admittedly a lovely ride at the top. Photos can be deceiving, what looks level is already a climb and it gets steeper approaching the gate at the top - beautiful tree-lined road.

Still climbing, olive groves on the hillsides.
Now descending...
...until coming back down to the Arno River in the town of Capraia Fiorentino where a very nice lady told us a lot about the historical significance of the town and the fact that cathedral in this photo had views of another cathedral somewhere behind us and that facilitated communication and allowing the angels to bring the communities closer together back in days many centuries ago. She wondered why we went to all the effort of going over the hill to get there when the riverside bike path if what you see at the bottom right of the photo.
The rest of the ride to Pisa was mostly flat, some on tree-lined regional roads, some on hard-surface single-lane country roads, some on dirt roads between dike and field, and even some single track...
Early afternoon arrival in Pisa and of course we wouldn't miss the leaning tower.

Tomorrow to Livorno.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Farewell Sardinia

Image
October 3rd-4th - just those two days to finish our ride from the north of Sardinia to Cagliari in the south. The first of those days was a big day for climbs - 2750 total metres of climbs and 120 km distance - a long tough day. The morning was dry as we climbed away from the coast...  ...but by noon, it was raining. The thing about rain is that you don't want to get the camera wet and anyway, you can't see the scenery let alone get a nice picture. Ergo no photos and in the years to come when we look back, the bad weather is forgotten. But for now, we still remember pouring rain driven by strong gusty winds, and cold temperatures at the higher elevations - not at all nice.  The weather eventually passed and it was brightening up as we approached Aritzo for the night. Better weather and more scenery changes for the following day into Cagliari. Rae and one of the other riders, also ex Canadian Forces, took a detour in the afternoon to go by an Italian Air Force Base at Decimoman...
Read more

Ajaccio to Bonifacio

Image
Rest day in Ajaccio, capital of Corsica, The citadel, no longer a military facility but only partly utilized now for tourism,... ...sits between beaches on one side and a busy harbour on the other. ...and within a few minutes walk, the 16th Cathedral Santa Maria Assunta where Napoleon Bonaparte was baptized. Another couple of minutes walk is the Bonaparte family home, now a museum focused not on Napoleon's battles but rather on the family history and Napoleon's life there. In he lower level in a olive mill and press, part of family businesses, Don't even try to get dinner at a restaurant before 7 pm here so it was dark when we had dinner near the bright lights near the centre of this photo. The starter course was these little fishes that looked very much like one's we ate in Nepal a few years back. Of course they couldn't be the same as these come from salt water while Nepal was local stuff a long way from the sea. Nevertheless, Ursula has made a supreme effort to p...
Read more

Viva Italia

Image
'Viva Italia' - our next cycling tour - five-and-a-half weeks starting middle of September. Once again, we're with TDA Global Cycling with whom we've done most of out cycling tours - we know them well by now, and they know us - and they even take us back again and again. The route is from Rome to Rome via Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and various interesting places in between. The bikes are now in the boxes and pretty much ready to go and so are we.   See you in Rome ! ! !
Read more