Day One

 

 

Today I went for my first ride in Italy. It was nothing too exciting, just a "River Road" ride out to this little town east of Firenze. Apparently it's some type of amateur TT course, but the pavement was so much smoother than River Road at home. The same wind was there though. A light tailwind heading out and a headwind coming back. After "completing" the course, I had a few hours of daylight to do a little exploring.

 

I failed to mention that as I was leaving for the ride, my Garmin 810 decided to bail and I had to do a reset, loosing all my maps and profiles. After reprogramming the Activity Pages on the side of the road (I didn't feel like carrying my bike back up the third story walk-up) I was off, senza mapa. Luckily I reviewed the simple route before hand, and it was a ride along the river, how much could go wrong?

 

The traffic started off heavy but once I was two or three miles out of Firenze, it was pretty open. One thing is for sure, drivers here are used to cyclist and they don't yell and scream, flip you off, buzz you, etc. Even the bus drivers allow four feet passing, voluntarily!! And when a bus is stopped on the side of the road, they actually put their blinker on and merge safely. Septa's got a thing or two to learn. I generally feel very safe on the road. The only thing to get used to is the scooters, and they're everywhere.

 

Since my ride wasn't so scenic, I decided to roam around the city via bici. The roads that are paved are smooth, but the ancient paving block roads are a whole 'nother story. Getting that shook around took a little getting used to, especially with my shoulders sore from lugging my bike bag around. I kept thinking, "What the hell is Paris-Roubaix like, then?"

 

Aside from cycling, I did some grocery shopping in the Mercato Centrale, tasted some olive oil and balsamic (which resulted in my buying some for my salad), and made myself a nice sandwich of olives, smoked scamorza, and pesto, and I bought myself an awesome black leather bomber jacket from Massimo to compliment the brown jacket I bought last year. Color variety is very important, just ask my sister. I guess that's the reason she has like four dressers/ wardrobes?

 

Anyway, I'm getting off track. I'm about to shower and head to dinner. I think some pizza is on deck for tonight. As I get ready to go, with the window open in my little apartment, I can overhear some children yelling at a soccer game on TV. I feel right at home with the family next door yelling at each other and the smell of someone's dinner (something with lots of garlic) lingering in the air. Ok, I'm getting hungry. Tomorrow I head to the hills!