Oh boy, what a day!!

I really need to go to sleep, but, thankfully, someone out there is reading this - and I haven't written anything in some time- so, here we go.

Yesterday, besides doing a short ride up Monte Morello, we spent a good part of the day packing and prepping for today. This included disassembling the bikes trying to get everything that we bought into our now very expanded suitcase, and eating-in so as to use up some leftover food, before packing the rest as snacks for today. We walked around Firenze one last time, but we were in bed by 10pm with a 9am train to catch. 

Today was a transfer day. We took a train from Firenze all the way to Napoli. That was the easy part. From there, we took the most packed regional train I've ever been on, down to Agropoli. Many stairs and 600 meters later, we found ourselves on the side of the main road through Agropoli waiting for a bus to take us up and over the mountain, back down to Santa Maria di Castellabate. Another 500 meters down the sea, we then found ourselves in front of another 4th floor apartment. I've never sweat so much in my life, at least not off the bike.

It was a tough day, but getting to this town was totally worth it. Along the way I dropped my phone and messed up the inner screen. It still works, it just looks funny. Just another casualty of the day, along with my shoulder. 

All of it was worth the effort. The apartment is amazing. The view from our terrace looks directly out onto the beach, onto what seems like infinity that is the Tyrrhenian Sea. The woman who owns the place is so nice. She pretty much only speaks Italian, but we're doing okay. 

The weather is lovely here, hot and humid but the sea breeze is incredible and it's not nearly as hot as Tuscany. And last but certainly not least, the food here is going to be great!! Already tonight dinner was outstanding. And don't worry, we found our nearest grocery store already. 

Tomorrow, we'll find a bakery, put the bikes together, go for a ride and take some pictures. The sunset on the sea is beautiful and I am so excited for five more nights of that. I love Fireze, but I am really excited to be somewhere new to me. It was difficult to get to, which is why there are only Italian tourists here, but I'm excited to be in a place with less foreign tourists and more Italians. I can already tell it's going to be fun. The Italians are on the beach until almost 9pm and the whole town is out and about, eating, drinking, and socializing. This is way better than Amalfi! Maybe not as much glitz and glamour, but this is real Italy, and that's what I want. 

For now, it's time to head to bed. Kristen is probably already asleep and I better be there soon. Like I said, I really need to go to sleep!

Ponte Vecchio

 

Piccolo Giro di Chianti

Today's blog post doesn't feature any photos; not because they won't upload (they probably won't anyway), but because I didn't take any. I did take a great photo of Ponte Vecchio yesterday that I'll upload later if I can. 

We went for a shorter ride of just under 50 miles today, through Chianti. We barely stopped for more than a minute, with the exception of traffic lights. It was a nice ride, with our turnaround point down at Greve in Chianti. 

Instead of being hot today, it was the wind that was tough. With a nice cool temperature touching up around 90, the overcast skies did open up a little bit but ironically most of the sun was accompanied by rain. We never got too wet and it was nice to cool off a bit, and luckily that aforementioned wind blew at our backs the whole way back north to Firenze. Finally today we passed some other cyclists...a whole lot of them, all on one road. We thought perhaps it was an organized ride but after checking some of the "fly-bys" on Strava, we realized it was just a super popular road to cycle. While we were steadily climbing our way into the wind, they were all chatting-it-up easily cruising downhill with the wind.

After our ride, we returned home. I made the Cavolo Nero (Tuscan Kale) that I bought at the market the other day and we watched La Corse, the women's race in Paris that accompanies the final stage of the Tour. I think we were feeling the effects of the ride and after a short afternoon walk, we came back, watched the final stage and then went to dinner. 

Besides our ride, the day was rather uneventful. Chilling out watching bike racing may seem like a silly way to spend time in this great town, but at a certain point, we need to relax a bit. We've been riding and walking ourselves into the ground. We can't wait on any more tourist lines and we can't afford to shop anymore, so the best thing to do is to take it easy. We still have over two weeks here and lots of traveling, so we need not burn out. 

Tomorrow we will do one final ride here, before we pack it up and move south on Tuesday. Our final ride will be to the highest point around Firenze. It will be a short ride of 30 miles, but it should be 3000ft of climbing as well, so it might be a tough one. The weather should be much the same as today, perhaps some storms in the afternoon so we better get out early. That said, it's time for bed. I'll try to post something tomorrow, otherwise you won't hear from me until we're settled in down in Santa Maria di Castellabate. Arrivederci.

It's raining and cold.

Ok, so it's not cold. It's roughly 85dF, but after baking under the relentless sun in 100dF heat since we've arrived, it feels "chilly"...well at least according to some Italians, who are out there wearing jackets. 

This morning we got up earlier to get out for a ride, but we awoke to a light rain. Instead of going out in the rain when not necessary, we decided to go pick up Kristen's jacket from Massimo and wait out the rain. Of course, when we got to his shop at 10:30, there was no one there yet. So we went to the bakery and stocked up (the bakery is closed on Sunday and we needed lunch stuff, breakfast tomorrow and ride food). The lady must think we're crazy! How do these two skinny people come in there everyday and eat so much. All I know is that carrot cake we brought with us on our ride yesterday really hit the spot. Anyway, I digress. 

We got back, had a snack and got ready to go out for a ride. We were all dressed and headed out the door when Kristen noticed the rain coming down on the skylight in the hallway. With thunderstorms forecast for this afternoon we decided we'd just put the laundry in, shower and head out to Palazzo Pitti, with one final stop at the San Lorenzo Market on the way home, if the vendors hadn't gone off due to the rain. Now that we had other plans, watch the sun come out, as it does. 

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For those of you who are only following here, sorry for the lapse in posts. We've been really keeping busy between riding, touring the sights, shopping, and oh so much walking! And the stairs!! We're getting a workout even on the days we don't ride. I've been posting photos on Facebook since, for some reason, I'm having a lot of trouble posting them to Blogger. Like I've mentioned, we're also having issues with our GPS routing site so I think it's just an internet issue. Maybe the next place will be better... hopefully not worse. 

To fill you in a little bit, over the last few days we went up the Duomo dome. Without a Firenze card, the wait to get in was around two hours, but luckily it was early and we were in the shade. We decided against actually going inside, since on the way up to the dome you do go inside and see the inside of the dome much closer up than you could visiting the church alone. The best thing to see inside are the frescos, and we felt like waiting another hour on line to get inside was just too much. Instead we went to Santa Croce, which was really beautiful. I'd never been in there, only walked by, so it was exciting to see something new... plus there was no line. 

Besides that, we walked around and around and around. We picked up Kristen's custom sandals and ogled over the other shoes in the shop. My favorite pair were really beautiful but at nearly $900 they were a bit out of my budget. 

Yesterday we went for a tough hot ride. It was short, but the climb was quite steep for a long time and whenever I looked down at the temperature on my Garmin it was stuck at 100dF all the way up. The ride brought us back through Fiesole so we were able to go up to the overlook that allows you to see over the entire valley. We really wanted to climb up there on the bikes, but we had to walk. At over 20% grade with those big rocks that they used for paving, it was just too dangerous on that narrow lane with the pedestrians. 

After dinner, which I made in the apartment instead of going out, we walked around for a bit and stumbled upon a crazy concert band playing classic rock songs. When we arrived they were playing Bohemian Rhapsody. It was pretty cool; they had a rock rhythm section, a great guitar player, and all those horns. It was cool for a bit, but got kind of annoying after a while. 

We realized that Palazzo Vechio was open until 11 and it was so quiet, so we went in for a walk around. I've realized the best thing to do is visit these places near closing time or when they're open later on Fridays. It's so much more enjoyable without the crowds. 

Alright, well I best be going. I have to get showered so we can go out and make something of this dreary-by-Tuscan-standards day. I guess we could just stay in and watch the Tour but that maybe wouldn't be the best choice. Again sorry for no photos. If you're on Facebook and we're friend, you'll probably have already seen them. If we're not friends, friend either me or Kristen and you can see them. Otherwise, I'll try to post some later and see what happens.

Riding in the Inferno

 

Well, it's 9:30 and this is the earliest we've been back from dinner and ready for bed. After today's ride, there's not much energy left for walking around Firenze tonight. 

Let me preface this post by saying, it's gonna be a long one. I didn't write about yesterday, so I'll try to fill you in about that first, then move on to today. 

Yesterday, as I mentioned, we didn't make it to the Duomo because the lines were just too long! So, we walked around a lot and did some shopping. Yesterday afternoon was based mostly around popping into the many vintage shops here. They're really cool because there's a lot of vintage Italian designer stuff that, at the very least, is cool to look it. Practically every vintage store in New Hope is full of Levi's and Harley Davidson jackets, so it's nice to see some of the crazy 70s clothes, Italian style. 

Earlier in the day, we stumbled upon a little shoe store in which the shoes were made right in the back room. They were closed for lunch when we first walked by, so we walked all the way back to Oltrano (across the Arno river) to check them out. After purchasing a leather jacket from Massimo which is on custom order, Kristen was very impressed that the shoe store would make her a pair of sandals that were the width of one size and the length of another. Just like the jacket, this incurs no extra cost. Just try to go get custom shoes in America. I can't even imagine how much they'd charge you. This is another problem with everything sold in America being made in China. If you want custom anything, it's some high-end expensive thing. Here, they make the stuff here so they can just make it just for you, no big deal. When you're wearing a pair of shoes made especially for you, that's a special thing. It's too bad we've gotten so far away from that, favoring cheap everything instead of quality. As Gucci said, "Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten."

On the way home we stopped in one last vintage store. Whenever I'm here, I'm always looking for a classic Bianchi-Campagnolo wool jersey. I didn't think they'd have one but I figured why not stop in. Well, turns out they had two hanging up, one long sleeved and one short. I had to try it on! Unfortunately, I was too fat. I really wanted one to wear as a sweater, but for that purpose, this one was too small. The sleeves and shoulders fit perfectly, but the torso was too tight. While we were looking, the very nice man who owned the store went into the back and pulled out another short sleeved one that fit Kristen like a glove! She had to have it! I've created a monster! And I'm jealous! Perhaps if I try the other one on with bib shorts it'll be good as a cycling jersey for fall...we'll see. 

For dinner, we again went to the Mercato Centrale. The food really is incredible there! Just unbelievable. I can't recommend it enough. When you come to Firenze, and you should, you must go there! The most exciting thing that we bought was a piece of Mozzaralla di Bufala Afumicata. That means mozzarella made from water buffalo's milk then smoked. I've never seen it smoked before. On a slice of crusty bread with some olive oil, salt, pepper, tomato and basil, it may have been one of the greatest things I've ever eaten in my entire life!!

Today was a full cycling day. We got up and tried to get out as early as possible. At 10am, it was already almost 90 degrees. Today's ride was a loop out through quintessential Tuscan landscapes. Olive groves, vineyards, Tuscan farmhouses, cypress trees, etc., all the way out to San Gimignano. The loop of 72 miles passed over hill after hill, the switchbacks winding through farms and up to quaint hill towns. It was a beautiful, but very hard ride. I think the ride itself wasn't too bad on paper, but by the time we were headed back, the heat was unreal. In the shade, with the breeze, it felt great! That Tuscan sun, though, is crazy! In open areas, especially on climbs, it was like being under a broiler. And of course, the last climb of the day was definitely the steepest. 

San Gimignano is nice. It's like a smaller Siena. It's very touristy though, which I entirely expected. My favorite town along the route was a little hilltop village, if I remember correctly, called San Casciano. We stopped at the top of the climb at a little bar to get water. Inside we found a bunch of men sitting around a television watching Le Tour de France. We were really temped to sit down and watch the last 15km with them, but with 30km of our own to go, we knew we needed to get back at it, otherwise we'd be finding a bus back to Firenze as the fatigue and heat would really set in. 

We made it back and it turned out to be a lovely, albeit hard ride. Kristen refueled with some roasted pork ribs and potatoes, and of course gelato. Since it's relatively early, tomorrow we'll try to get up and get on line for the Duomo. Without purchasing a Firenze Card, which allows you exclusive access to the front of almost all lines and "free" entry, we might have to wait a bit, but we'll see. There is so much to see in this great Renaissance city, I feel somewhat guilty not seeing more of it (actually I've seen almost all of it on a previous trip, but Kristen hasn't) but we've decided that we'll pick a few must see things, and spend the rest of the time riding and eating. Standing on lines to crowd in with hordes of tourists taking pictures of everything is not nearly as enjoyable as seeing the countryside and the towns and experiencing the culture and food. We will do some but we can't do it all. 

It may seem strange but I don't even know if I'll take my camera out of the bag on this trip. I will take a photo here or there with my phone (which usually comes out better anyway) but I want to see it all with my eyes, not on the screen of my camera. It's sort of a rebellion against all the other tourists. They take photos of everything and I bet most all of their photos turn out terribly. Even worse, don't get me started on the selfie sticks and GoPros on poles. At the risk of sounding like an old man, I think the worst thing that has happened for tourism is the selfie stick. Someone should make walking around on vacation staring at your phone illegal, worse if it's on a selfie stick. Why did you spend all this money coming here if you just want to take pictures of everything and stare at your phone? I'm sure there are a lot of great Pokemon to catch or whatever, but if another person steps out in front of me to take a picture or with their head up their ass (aka on their phone) I'm going to smack it out of their hand. Didn't anyone tell you that there is this thing called the Internet in which you can find photos of all this stuff taken by professional photographers who actually know how to use that $5000 camera you- for some reason- own? Okay, rant over...but come on!!

For now there are no photos here, not because I didn't take them. I just can't get them to upload right now and I want to go to sleep. Check back for photos later. Sorry

Quick post to tide you over.

 

So much walking today! I'm only writing a short post for now because we're tired and we have a big, hot ride planned for tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll head out towards San Gimignano, over all the vineyard-covered hills of Chianti. Today we planned to see the Duomo but it didn't work out. Lines were too long, so instead we walked and walked and walked. And we shopped. And we ate. It was great! A lot of wonderful stuff today, but I'll fill you in on it all tomorrow in one big post. For now, above is a beautiful picture of the moon overlooking Piazza del Mercato Centrale, with the Duomo in the background and Mercato Centrale on the right. Below is a photo of the plan of the Mercato Centrale Upstairs. As you can see, there is a little of everything. There's even a separate cheese shop and mozzarella shop. Considering it's only steps from our front door, it may be our new favorite place to eat. 

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Kristen's Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to Kristen!! Given that my birthday is in November, I've never had the chance to spend it in Italy. I'm sure that alone would be a wonderful present. But gladly for Kristen today had so much more!

First off, let me say this: You know how you go to the giant grocery store with you car and stock up for a week? Italians don't do that. And Italian tourists don't do that either. It's hot here, plus we're cycling, and the water from the faucet is not drinkable as far as most people are concerned, so as mentioned earlier, we're making lots of trips to the grocery store...like, every day! Most of the time it's for water. 

Now here's another thing: many Americans go on vacation to places like the Carribean for a relaxing time. Remember those daily trips to the grocery store I just mentioned? Today Kristen and I each carried a six-pack of 1.5l bottles, 500 meters back to the apartment then up the six flights of stairs. Between that, the cycling and all the other walking and stairs, we're really working our asses off this trip. No wonder I usually loose weight when I go to Italy! 

So, yes, for Kristen's birthday we went to the grocery store...but that's not all we did luckily. The main event today was a "short" ride out to Convento di Monte Senario. As I mentioned in the previous post, the convent sits at 2600ft above sea level. The climb begins almost immediately after you exit the main area of Firenze, and you climb 14 miles out into what seems like the middle of nowhere. It was absolutely beautiful; very easy to forget that Firenze is so close.

The ride out was very interesting. At first you ride a somewhat busy road, Via Bologense (guess where that road takes you to), and then split off to some really nice back roads towards the end. The last bit of the climb up to the convent is incredible. Some nice switchbacks and by that point you're up into the dense pine forest. The pine trees kept it cool and shady but you could smell the sweet pine sap heating up under the hot Tuscan sun. The final stretch to the convent was quite steep but with the beautiful building in sight it was easy to just power up there. 

 

Once we got up there, we looked around, had a little snack, then made our way back down. The descent was very nice, minus a few incidents. We were able to take different roads all the way back, and seeing as how the road there was almost entirely uphill, obviously the way back was almost entirely downhill. On the upper slopes of the climb, Kristen got twice stung by a bee on the upper arm. She said it really hurt at first but we didn't even have to stop riding and after a mile or so, it was fine. She's tough! As we made our way down, I was looking behind for Kristen to make sure she was okay with the switchbacks and I nailed a big hole. If I were looking, there's no way I would have hit it, but I hit it hard, and pinched-flatted the rear. I have to say though, it was the most beautiful place I've ever had a flat! I just so happened to flat right across the street from a little piazza that overlooked the entire valley down to Firenze. There was a shady tree, the tire came off and back on easily and even the pumping wasn't too bad today. Kristen got to hang out and enjoy the view and after a few minutes we were back on our way. 

After a few days of riding here, Kristen is taking to the traffic quite well. She's starting to ride like one of these Florentines on their Vespa! I'm glad she's enjoying it. Riding here is just wonderful and the rides are only going to get longer and harder. Plus, it's going to get hotter in the coming days. 

After our ride, we ate lunch "at home", then headed out to Mercato San Lorenzo to shop. The leather goods are superb and the prices are very reasonable. We visited Massimo again and Kristen found a great jacket. He's going to have his guy make her a custom one that adds about 7cm to the sleeves. Kristen is small but her arms are long! Out of curiousity, and Massimo's skillful yet very subtle salesmanship, I ended up coming out of there with a jacket as well. Kristen also got a great messenger-style bag to use for teaching. It's something you'd easily pay $300 for in the US, but the price was far from that. 

  

Dinner tonight was wonderful. We went to this place called Il Vezzo. It's literally 300ft from our apartment and the food is outstanding. If you're in Firenze anytime soon, go there! It's not typical Tuscan food, rather a modern riff on it, with the freshest ingredients and creative plates. We shared a Farro  Salad with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella di bufala and basil with a very light caper and almond pesto. Superb! Kristen had roast pork with roasted vegetables in a plum sauce with artisan beer and lavender, and I had ricotta croquettes with eggplant, zucchini, and chard, over a carrot pink peppercorn cream. Sounds expensive, but it really wasn't. We're definitely going back there! Plus, the restuarant had a bicycle theme. The menu and logo featured a bicycle and inside hung a bike supposedly from a builder here in Firenze that dated back to 1901. Pretty cool!

Again, we finished our day with some gelato and some laundry. Tomorrow we'll shop some more and do some touristy things. Perhaps a Duomo tour, we'll see. So much to do! Luckily we're here for seven more days. For now, it's bedtime. More tomorrow.

Cycling main roads and "goat paths" alike!

Today we got out for our first real ride. Yesterday's warm-up ride was just to test the bikes and get Kristen acquainted with the city traffic, paving stones, and pedestrians everywhere, so she wouldn't have to have that anxiety before heading out for some real hills.

Our ride took us first to Fiesole, up the main climb used in the World Championships in 2013. From there we descended a somewhat technical descent on a nicely paved road back down to the Arno River. After crossing the river, we began to climb again, this time the longest climb of the day. Once we got to the top, the craziest descent I've done maybe ever awaited us. I've done this ride before, but in the last three years the pavement really went. Just a single lane (barely even that) of split-up asphalt mixed with some large gravel strewn about. And boy was it steep; some spots we were grabbing full brakes just trying to make the turns! For you cyclists from Bucks/ Hunterdon, think descending Uhlerstown if it were ten times the distance. That's the best way to describe it. The remainder of the ride featured some nice climbs and much more favorable road conditions. 

Cycling took up most of the day. Honestly we did sleep in quite a bit, and we did make yet another trip to the Conad. Lots of technical difficulties with our GPS site and the washing machine kept us up way too late last night. As I write this now, it's 1AM, which means I'm going to write one more paragraph and it's off to bed. 

Besides cycling, we did some good eating. That's the great thing about cycling; you burn enough calories that you can eat completely guilt free. Today's post ride snack consisted of some pane Toscano, some Pecorino Toscano, some Pecorino Vecchio Cacio di Pienza, and Kristen had some Salumi Toscano and Culatello di Zibello, finished off with some good dark chocolate. That was just the antipasto. Dinner featured porcini mushrooms and black truffles and we finished the day with some wonderful gelato at Grom. 

Tomorrow is Kristen's birthday. As a celebration, we will ride a marathon, as in a shorter ride that measures 26.2 miles on RideWithGPS. The ride is to the Convento Monte Senario. Situated at 2600ft, the Convent was built in the 15th Century. We won't be able to go inside in our cycling clothes, but it should be beautiful to climb up there, then it's downhill all the way home! After that, we're going shopping. Surely tomorrow's blog post will be about all the wonderful things Kristen buys herself for her birthday hahaha! 

Alright, I'll catch up with you all tomorrow. 

Still on EST I think.

PLEASE NOTE: DUE TO NETWORK CONECTIVTY ISSUES, I AM  HAVING TROUBLE UPLOADING PHOTOS AT THIS TIME. I WILL TRY TO RESOLVE THIS ISSUE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

The first post of any trip usually isn't terribly exciting. I'm afraid to say that's the case here. Upon our arrival yesterday, we traveled by train to Firenze, then walked about a kilmometer, bike bags on our shoulders and luggage in tow, to the apartment on Via San Zinobi. The equivalent of six flights of stairs awaited us...just what I wanted to see! After checking in, we did the first thing that anyone needs to do upon arriving in Italy: we went to the bakery! After that, everything was a blur. There was a trip to the grocery store which resulted in carrying back 18 liters of water...and back up those stairs we went, but besides that I couldn't tell you. We went to sleep and then found the energy for some dinner at Osteria Cento Poveri, one of my favorite restaurants in Firenze.

Today was much the same. Not one, but two trips to two different grocery stores and a round of the Mercato Centrale. You might think all we've done so far is buy and eat food. That's actually pretty accurate. A lot of the first day here invloves stocking up on food and necessities. We're doing apartment living for most of the trip so there are quite a number of things you need to buy when you're doing some of your own cooking and living in a foreign country for a month, not just staying at posh hotels.

We did get out for a small ride today. Really small, just to test the bikes and get gelato. Tomorrow we'll do a real ride, then hopefully spend some time seeing some parts of this city besides the local Conad grocery store.

 

Perhaps the most exciting thing we did today was go to the upstairs of Mercato Centrale for dinner. We got out late for dinner (10pm CET), hence this post's title, but luckily the Mercato Centrale "food court" is open until 1am. It's definitely not your average food court. It's basically an Eataly in Italy. Actually I think it kind of is. There are definitely some tourists there, but it's mostly locals as far as I could tell and the food is outstanding, the atmosphere is cool and the prices are great! By far the best eggplant pizza I've had in my life!

I guess the only other thing of note, is our slightly crazy way of storing things here. There's not a lot of space in this apartment, but since there is a sleeping loft, we were able to make use of the ceiling height. Right now, we have the bike bags hanging for the banister and our clothes line strung up as well. Might as well use the space!

Anyhow, for those of you reading this blog for the first time, don't worry, it should get a bit more exciting in the coming days. Just trying to get settled in. Time to head to bed.