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. 

 .

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. 

Italia 2016

I am very happy to announce that I will be traveling to Italy for another great cycling, eating, sightseeing adventure this summer. Even more exciting is that this time I won't be traveling alone. Kristen, my wonderful girlfriend turned awesome cyclist, will be joining me for this month long trip! I can't think of a better way to spend the summer than with Kristen in Italy!

Our trip will be taking us to some places I've visited previously, but mostly to new destinations in the south of the country. I am very excited to be revisiting Firenze (Florence) for a week and a half. I didn't get there on the last trip and really missed it. I am most excited to ride through Tuscany as well as spending time showing Kristen around one of my favorite cities in Italy. 

After our stay in Firenze, we will travel south past Roma, Napoli, and the Amalfi Coast to a little town called Santa Maria di Castellabate. This town in quaintly situated on Tyrrhenian Sea on the Cilentana Coast. It might be a little adventure to get there but I think it'll be well worth it. Besides the beach setting, large mountains and Vallo di Diano National Park sit just inland from our apartment. It's a cyclist's paradise!

Our final long term stay will be in San Pier Niceto, Sicily. Kristen's Uncle Gino has been incredibly gracious to host us at his aunt's home there. It should be a wonderful time. I have never met a more generous and genuinely kind person in my life. We are really looking forward to spending time with him and his family and experiencing Sicily in that type of setting. Perhaps if we can arrange it, we might even get to ride up Mount Etna...we'll see!

Finally we end up back in Roma, but just for two days. Enough to see a few sites, eat in Trastevere, and get back to the airport with relative ease without getting sick of the city. If you've read this blog before, you know Roma is not my favorite place. I think the short term stay will be nice. Perhaps after spending lots of time in small towns, Roma will be tolerable if only just to do some final shopping and wandering around. 

To those of you who have read this blog before, I hope you will join us again. I will try to be a little less long winded, maybe put up more pictures, etc. For those of you who are new, welcome! I hope you will enjoy vicariously traveling through Italy with us for a month. We're just now getting things squared away, so watch this space for updates coming mid-July when we arrive in Firenze!

Arrivederci!

Product Review: Sportique Century Riding Cream

Chamois cream is one of those things that no one tells you about when you first start cycling. I don't know if they don't mention it because they figure you won't ride that far at first. Or they don't want to add another item to the list of "weird" things cyclists do, in order not to scare you off. At some point you come across it. Hopefully you come across it out of curiosity at the bike shop, not out of need, because chaffing definitely sucks. Regardless, it's pretty important if you ask me. While there are many cyclists who ride many miles cream free, I can't imagine doing any more than a half hour without it.

I've tried many chamois creams over the years. Some are certainly better than others, but for the most part, I divide them into three categories:

1) the cheap ones that are filled with chemicals that will probably give you ass cancer (I don't mean this to be slanderous, I just mean that they contain chemicals like polyparaben)
-Paceline Chamois Butt'r
-Udderly Smooth

2) the super expensive ones that make you question whether your ass is really worth it
-DZnuts
-Assos
-Rapha
-Mad Alchemy

3) the all natural yet somewhat affordable ones
-Sportique Century Riding Cream
-Doc's Natural
-Betwixt
-Enzo's Buttonhole
-Beljum Budder

I started out with a tube of Chamois Butt'r. I used maybe half of it and threw it out. Once I read about all those chemicals it just wasn't worth it. Plus, it smelled terrible, the consistency was like school paste, and it didn't work great either. I haven't tried Udderly Smooth, but I'm not going to.

I can't say I've tried any in category two. DZnuts is great I'm sure but I've stayed away from it for two reasons. It's too damn expensive and I don't really need to feel any cool tingle down there. I'm not sure why that's desirable, but I should add that I am partial to DZnuts' Bald shaving cream. That's worth the money. It's worth pointing out that their products are free of all those bad chemicals.

Assos I've heard is amazing; you can read articles all across the internet about that. But again, stupidly expensive and I've heard the quality has gone down... plus it might be in the ass cancer category despite it's price. Same for Rapha.

Mad Alchemy is a great company. Their embrocation is the best, but embrocation lasts a lot longer than chamois cream. I wouldn't be able to afford to ride if I used their chamois cream.

That brings us to my preferred category of chamois creams, the natural yet affordable. I've used all these creams except the Doc's Natural (which I will try sometime just out of curiosity).

Enzo's is okay, a little tingly, smells like mint which makes you want to eat it (probably don't do that). They have reformulated it recently and made it a little more concentrated which is probably better. It had a nice high viscosity but wore off rather quickly.

Betwixt is pretty nice. I used it ages ago when I could get it from my LBS, but I just came across it again last week when my girlfriend got a tub of it. It's good, I rode 117 miles on it, but it definitely didn't hang in there for more than 60 of it. It's be good for shorter rides but I was not impressed with how loose the consistency was.

Beljum Budder is very similar to Betwixt. A little thicker but still more french cream than ricotta, if you know what I mean (if you are a cyclist and pretend not to know about pastries you are a liar!). They are restructuring ownership so it might be a while until they're back on the market. It's no great loss if you ask me.

AND THE WINNER IS.... Sportique Century Riding Cream.

Duh, that's why I'm writing this. Maybe this isn't so much a product review as it is a raving endorsement. I've tried too many of these products and this is the only one that truly does what I need it to do. When you find something that works, stick with it.

Sportique CRC is the perfect consistency. It's a very high viscosity, especially when it's colder,  but when spread evenly and rubbed it into the chamois, it really lasts all day, regardless of the weather. I've ridden a lot of centuries on this stuff. It works.

CRC is made in the Czech Republic with botanicals and natural ingredients, is paraben free, petroleum free, mineral oil free, etc so it won't give you the aforementioned ass cancer or break down your expensive cycling clothes. Despite all those botanicals and natural ingredients, menthol or other such tingle-educing ingredients are also absent, which is a plus for me. I think it's even vegan!

The one drawback for some might be it's strong botanical scent. I don't mind it at all, but I could see how it could bother some. I generally don't go about smelling my own ass so it's not an issue for me, but I can't say the same for people sucking my wheel! Ha! Besides that, just keep in mind, like any cream, or sweat for that matter, it can and will leach through your chamois, so be mindful of where you sit post-ride. Though, sitting on your bare car seats, your couch, bed, etc after a ride in your cycling clothes is pretty gross regardless, so...

Sportique CRC is part of a huge line of awesome products, all of which are completely natural. They make some nice massage oils, their Elements Cream is great during the winter, their Moisturizing Body Balm is a great indulgence, and their Shea Butter Hand Cream keeps up with the cold dry winter with ease. I also love that they make a Hard Day's Night Foot Cream (Beatles) and a Mother's Little Helper lotion (Stones). That's my kind of company.

While somewhat hard to find online on the big sellers (not on Amazon yet) they're really easy to deal with directly. The US distributor is based in NYC so shipments are fast on the east coast. While shipping isn't free, they give you a 10% discount code which usually offsets most of the shipping cost. Plus, they often send along a liberal sampling of trial sizes and sometimes even a whole complimentary tube of another product to try out.

As a final note, of course remember this this is in no way an exhaustive list of chamois creams. There are other offerings such as Friction Freedom or the Chomper Body products, which I've only just heard of. Both are all natural and look interesting. The Chomper Body products are water free and emu oil based so they go far and last, but their animal base may make them undesirable to some. Also, both are a bit on the prohibitively expensive side as well.

Overall I've found the Sportique Century Riding Cream to be the perfect balance of natural ingredients, long wear quality, price per ounce and availability. For me, that makes it the perfect chamois cream.

Strava

It's a joke amongst cyclists these days that you didn't do the ride until you've uploaded it to Strava. Well, here they are, all my rides from Italy are up on Strava.
A few things I was surprised by: I didn't realize that that climb to Piancavallo which I did on the first day there was an HC* climb (according to Strava). I thought that was supposed to be a shorter easier ride so that's why I started with it. If I had known, I probably wouldn't have done it. But sometimes it's better not to know. It was a great ride and I even went out for another ride later that day.
Also, I was surprised how many top 10 overalls I had on climbs. I am even the owner of a few KOMs** in Italy! I noticed that I have more down near Parma. I have a feeling more Strava users ride up north in the mountains, but not as many down there. Strava is growing every year though so I'm sure I'll have some competition soon!
8/21 Piancavallo
8/21 Verbania Bonus Ride
8/22 Mottarone
8/23 Recovery Day with Amici
8/23 Exploring Intra
8/24 Hard 100k massive headwind all the way back to Verbania
8/26 Scott's ride from Laveno and Monte Rosso. Forgot to turn garmin back on after ferry. Rambling around Pallanza for a while.
8/29 Riding around Parma
8/29 First Emilia Romagna ride. Messed up with Garmin so I missed the first 12km or so.
8/31 Tried but it rained. Try again tomorrow.
9/1 Best ride of the whole Trip 130km to La Spezia. Absolutely what riding in Italy is all about!!
9/5 Last ride in Italy, of course it rains in the mountains, but still a nice ride. Massive Jensie effort to beat the storms on the way back to town.
* For those who don't know, HC means Hors Categorie, meaning beyond category. In the major races they rank climbs from 4 being the easiest classified climb, up to 1. HC means it's beyond 1, the hardest, based on length, grade, and in the races, how far along in the stage it is.
** For those who don't know, Strava uses everyone's GPS times from uploaded rides and makes a virtual leaderboard on the segments, in other words, specific sections of road like climbs, descents, etc. Segments are user created, and pretty much everything is a segment these days. Strava will award you with a "trophy" if you place in the Top 10. If you are number one, it's called a KOM, or King of the Mountain, stemming from similar competitions in Grand Tours.