After the event

Now, back home after the fun, the travel, the excitement, time to pen one more blog entry.

First of all, to cover off on the days that followed...

We came back to Firenze a little tired but happy. Keith and Julie left fairly early on Friday morning, so it was a relatively early night on Thursday. Marie and I had a nice slow day in Firenze, doing a little shopping, experiencing the "famous" Friday hailstorm and a very nice seafood dinner at Pescheria San Pietro, just across the road from S.M.N. One of the best meals of the trip.

On Saturday we caught the train to Termini then the airport. This was A LOT BETTER than the combination that we had used on the way north via Tiburtina. We didn't have adjacent seats on our tickets for the segment from Firenze to Roma but in fact there were empty seats so we could sit together. Yes at Termini we had to put up with some unwanted attention from teenagers trying to "help" us, but not having to be eternally vigilant about luggage at every stop on the regional train made it a lot easier.

At the airport I had some hassles with carrying CO2 cylinders for my tyre inflater, but once that was sorted all went well. Arriving at Dubai I was whisked through to the hotel and had a good night's sleep before an uneventful leg (exit row upstairs on the A380) from Dubai to Sydney. Arrived home tired but OK.

Next to the credits...

First of all to my good friends Keith, Julie and Marie. The trip would have been much the poorer without each of you. Keith was an enthusiastic and constant cycling companion, never complaining, happy to go or to slow or to stop. Julie helped to organise, to make everything appear sorted, to bring a positive and supporting attitude when it was needed. Marie said "oh wow" a lot and had the energy to push on and experience (and to drink grappa), helping us to see Toscana through fresh eyes. Everyone was full of good humour and we joked and teased our way across Italy.

Second to the supporting cast:

• Giovanni, for taking us under his wing on the first two days, for his incredible generosity in helping us to experience "his" Toscana, showing us Lucca, turning a wet day from a negative into a positive: an unforgettable experience. We will never forget you. Thank you.
• Davide Biordi of Hotel Magda (and our taxi driver in Emilia Romagna) for going out of his way to make our logistics work well, including enlisting family help to make sure our beach trip turned out exactly as we wanted.
• The staff (and extended family) at Casa dei Grilli in Longiano for doing that extra bit to make our visit comfortable, enjoyable and memorable. I won't forget being served la cucina d'Emilia in the garden overlooking that extraordinary view.

Third to the extraordinary events, scenery, wine, food and culture of Toscana, Emilia-Romagna and indeed Italia:

• The Chianti Classico wine festival
• The Palio in Sansepolcro. I love the intensity of passion that Italians can bring to this sort of event and the late night celebratory parade. The drums and trumpets still echo!
• Italian drivers, the best in the world and the great roads that we used. Even just thinking about how as we left Firenze, the traffic on Via Senese was happy to just sit behind us would be impossible to imagine in Australia.
• Hills, olive goves, vineyards, towns and castles on hilltops, a postcard around every corner.
• Tartufi bianco e nero! Both in one day!
• Countless lovely wines, with perhaps the best being the Chianti Classico wines we drank at San Lorenzo markets.
• Climbing for 16km without feeling shattered.

Last to the technology and information that allows us (or at least me) to plan and execute such a fabulous trip from the comfort of my home PC, and the technologies that bring our fabulous bikes through such a trip with zero problems!

Day 3 was better...

We woke this morning to a better forecast. Both Il Meteo and AccuWeather haf it pretty clear after 10am even though it was raining. The forecast was correct though: no rain! Actually we were a bit lucky as in several places the road was freshly wet as there were occasional passing showers.

View back towards Firenze

Leaving Firenze on the busy road through Porto Romano was fine. The drivers just sit and wait until it is safe to overtake. The back roads we used to get to Impruneta were good if a little steep in places. At Impruneta we stopped for cafe and cornetti. Easy mostly downhill from there to Strada in Chianti, then another climb before a very nice downhill to Greve.

Ride data

We checked in, had lunch and waited for those unavoidably detained by shopping in Firenze :-) The view out over the piazza was the promise of what was to come, with all the stalls built but not occupied.

At 5pm the Chianti Classico wine festival kicked off with typical Italian pomp including the brass band. Wines from 99 producers, probably 250 wines in total, all from the Chianti Classico region were available for tasting. On addition there were many olive oil producers.

We tasted some lovely wines and had a great time! The arrangement for tasting is that you get a tasting glass and a punchcard of seven tastes for €10. In truth though there is little incentive for the wine makes to punch your card, so if you don't offer it they often don't care. After all they are there to have you taste their product! All of the stalls were from Chianti Classico, some also showing other wines (Super Tuscans, whites, Vin Santo), some also with olive oil and some with grappa.

For dinner we went back to the hotel (not far as you can see) for a pretty nice dinner on the balcony again.

Day two a washout

Well the thunderstorms and rain did not let up. Given the route it would have been dangerous. Giovanni very generously turned up with his car and drove us all with bikes back to Florence, along the planned riding route so at least we got to see it,  through the rain and fog. The trip convinced me that it had been the right decision to not ride, with water over the road in some places, heavy rain, cloud and mist: in truth I expect that we would have abandoned even if we had set out.

So thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Giovanni we arrived safely back in Florence looking forward to tomorrow's ride. We took Giovanni to lunch as a small thank you, fairly close to the hotel.

Best wine so far

A second evening at San Lorenzo, different food and even better wine!

Early morning in Florence

Sunday in Firenze

Including a fabulous dinner at the San Lorenzo markets.

Water trough in Via Nazionale

Best wine of the night

Crowd enjoying San Lorenzo markets

Antipasto

An old friend (the first winery we ever visited in Tuscany)

Night photography

Il Duomo looks impressive: lit at night

Quiet streets as we walk back to the hotel

Arriving in Florence

Our trip from Fiumicino to Florence was OK. We had to straighten out some hotel booking problems before we left though. The Frecciargento express was good although there was a shortage of luggage storage space. It was a short walk over the cobblestones to the hotel and we were welcomed for the first of three stays at Hotel Mario's.

After the short walk to the hotel we checked in and I unpacked the bike. All good. We walked down to San Lorenzo markets and had dinner there. What they have done in the restoration is fantastic! The lowest floor is still a traditional fruit, vegetable, meat, fish etc. market. The next floor though is altogether new: more a less a food court, but no Maccas here - all individual stalls selling specialty Tuscan food to eat at the tables there. A baker, a pasta maker, a patisserie, a cheese shop, one for seafood, one for sandwiches, a pizza place, a bar and a Chianti Classico wine bar, a cooking school and lots, lots more! Our meal of antipasti, gnocchi (exceptional) and watermelon all washed down with Chianti Classici. Wonderful.

There is a third floor which appears to be restaurants but we didn't go there.

Rimini to Firenze

If the bicycles are not in bags then they (and the cyclists) must travel on i treni Regionali.
The way to do this is to change in Faenza.

Here are some potential solutions:

13:00 Rimini Regionale 11536 13:37 Faenza
14:20 Faenza Regionale 23570 16:11 Firenze SMN.

14:44 Rimini Regionale Veloce 6564 15:35 Faenza
16:16 Faenza Regionale 21480  18:11 Firenze SMN

By contrast if the bikes are in bags then the Freccia trains run about every half hour and take about two hours for the journey. For example,

14:19 Rimini Frecciabianca 9818 15:15 Bologna Centrale
15:35 Bologna Centrale Frecciarossa 9569 16:10 Firenze SMN.

Bagging the bike at Rimini and unbagging at Firenze adds about 30 minutes (assuming only dropping one wheel and seat post out).

The weather

Our trip is now getting close enough that it is worth starting to monitor the weather forecast. As of today, this is what Accuweather indicates for the period of our trip:

7th  Florence         18-28 Partly sunny
8th  Florence         19-29 Mostly cloudy with a morning shower
9th  Lucca            21-29 Mostly cloudy
10th Florence         19-29 Partly sunny, afternoon thunderstorm
11th Greve in Chianti 19-27 Sunny
12th Greve in Chianti 16-26 Sun and clouds
13th Arezzo           15-22 Mainly cloudy
14th Sansepolcro      14-22 Mostly sunny
15th Sansepolcro      13-24 Sunny
16th Novafeltria      14-22 Mostly sunny
17th Longiano         16-22 Sunny
18th Rimini           18-25 Mostly sunny
19th Florence         17-28 Partly sunny

Festa della Rificolona

I only just found out about this festival and we will be in Firenze on the right day! Some of us may be a little jet lagged, but apart from that it looks like a good idea!

A period of fine tuning

Three months have passed. In this time I have not had to put too much thought into the plan. There have been incremental changes to the web site (some better graphics, some more text and pictures) and some minor changes to the route. The only significant one has been the change of the first night's accommodation from Altopascio to Montecarlo. This means about 100m of extra climb but a much more scenic night's location. It also means slightly more complex arrangements for luggage transfers since the hotel is not so close to the railway station. See http://apennines.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/luggage-transfers.html for the detail.

There was also some fine tuning of the route from Arezzo to Sanespolcro. I found a straight, flat secondary road which should have less traffic and be quicker than the original route I had selected out of Arezzo.

I have also added my pre-ride logistics... how to get me and the bike from the plane to Firenze. That is all sorted now!

I have also build a spreadsheet which compares the significant climbs of the route to the "Black Mountain" and Mount Stromlo climbs here in Canberra which will make it easier to figure out how hard each one is :-)

Based on this it now appears likely that we will try to get luggage transport rather than carry stuff in panniers :-) This is yet to be entirely planned, although I have had indicative emails from taxi services in some towns with the rough prices. Once again see http://apennines.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/luggage-transfers.html for my current thinking.

Accommodation summary

As of today I have two single rooms booked in each location except Firenze. I'll do that one soon. I will be arriving in Firenze early, so this will end up being the biggest single booking and also the most expensive. Oh well.

Day 3 Update

After consulting Bikely and an other couple of web sites I have made some improvements to the Day 3 route. Now we will continue east along the Arno for a little bit, which takes us around the busy and hilly section from Firenze Centrale to the autostrada. So now instead of going through Impruneta we go through Grassina and join the previous route before Strada in Chianti. It is a little shorter and takes out one descent into a valley and climb out again. More importantly it puts us on quieter roads in Firenze.

I've updated the Wiki page for day 3, and also added a browsable map of each stage to the relevant page. There are now enough changes that I've republished a new whole-of-route map and profile too.

To carry or to hire?

One significant unanswered question is what bike to ride. If I take a bike should it be my road bike or my touring bike? The same question applies to hire bikes although I have yet to see a "light touring" bike like mine for rent.

The road bike's advantages are that it is lighter, has better brakes and a smaller "Q" factor. The Touring bike is more robust (cro-mo instead of carbon), takes a rack and hence panniers and has wider gearing. On the balance I think the touring bike is more likely. I can mix and match wheels and tyres as I see fit, with the 28mm Continental 4 Seasons a likely choice. They survived Melburn-Roobaix just fine. I'm willing to risk the road bike so long as I can carry enough stuff. Maybe I'll do a trial pack into the largest Ortlieb underseat bag and the largest handlebar bag to see whether that feels like three days' worth.

Hire or carry?

The other consideration, probably more important is to leave my bikes at home and hire in Firenze, but that depends on whether I can get exactly what I want from a hire company. In general they do not seem to be very flexible but I guess I have a year to negotiate :-) Because it makes the logistics so much easier this would be my preference, but I'm not riding 400km on a bike I don't trust and enjoy.

Almost every day I am exchanging emails with Lia at http://www.florencebybike.it/index.php?lang=en and we are slowly coming to an understanding.

Our heavy touring bikes are what you need.
You can't fit Ortlieb handlebar bags to our road bikes.
Our road bikes only come with 23mm tyres.

We'll get there maybe!

A rethink of the route

A while back, before I started on the planning of this route, I'd thought about a "coast to coast" route in Italy. It didn't seem practical because of the logistics of bike bags and other luggage. However it occurred to me that a variant of my Bologna loop would work coast to coast.

Introducing: Italy coast to coast

So I've changed the route. Instead of taking the train to Bologna and eventually returning there, the plan now takes the train to Firenze, and uses that as a base. In Firenze I will unpack the bike and leave my luggage. Then onto a regional train to Viareggio on the Ligurian coast. From there the ride commences, inland to join the Via Francigana as it heads south, through Lucca to our first night's stop at Altopascio. The next day, after crossing the Arno our route turns north-east and more or less follows the Arno to Firenze, so we get to revisit our luggage briefly.

When we arrive in Rimini, instead of taking the train to Bologna, we take the train to Firenze! 

The overall distance remains more or less unchanged, although of course there is less climbing in total as we now only cross the Apennines once rather than twice.

The latest variant of the plan is at the wiki.

One thing led to another

There was no overseas trip planned for 2014 and now there is. How did this happen?

It all started, as these things often do, with me looking at a map of Italy. I was noticing the way the Apennines curve as they switch from near the west coast at the Gulf of Genoa to almost on the east coast as they wrap around Tuscany. I was reminded of the couple of times that we have driven over the mountains, once from Firenze to Ravenna and the other from Montepulciano to Ancona. So I got to thinking about riding in the mountains and wondering how hard it would be to traverse the range.

So here is the "method" that gets me from basic idea to a finished plan.

1. Integrate the planning of arrival and departure... there is the matter of logistics, getting bikes and luggage to the starting point and all together again at the end. This resulted in the Bologna-Bologna concept which then dictated the overall shape of the route.
2. Using the OSM cycle map in Garmin Basecamp, explore routes, keeping an eye on distance and altitude gain. Use Google to find out about the towns and regions. In this instance, looking at Anghiari alerted me to the "orange flag" towns which I used for later stages of planning.
3. Open prospective routes in Google Earth to do a more detailed check on elevation changes and to "fly" the route in some areas. This resulted in some changes to the route to make the climbing more manageable.
4. Once the set of routes and hence days of riding is known it is time to start capturing all this information, so off to PBWorks to create yet another Wiki as the knowledge repository with the front page and one page for each riding day with the general description and route profile.
5. With the basic structure captured, the ride can be publicised, and the last details can be added afterwards.
6. Research the overnight towns using TripAdvisor, or where that fails an "accommodation" search on Google Maps. For likely prospects, use their web site to get more information. For example this caused me to reject one B&B because the owners have dogs and cats. Put the hotel information into the wiki and also into a planning spreadsheet to hold booking status eventually. Add restaurant recommendations where they exist.
7. Check out suitable towns as lunch stops on the mountain sections to ensure that food and water will be available. To find lunch stops the easiest thing is to cruise the town or village in Google street view.
8. Choose dates. The general time of year (September) is driven by weather considerations, but exact timing can take advantage of local events, fairs, festivals etc. In this case the Chianti Wine Festival was too good an opportunity to miss! The rest days and riding days were sequenced to make 3,2,3 chunks of riding.
9. Go back and tidy up the Wiki, add maps and photos. Drop the weather widget on the page for each day.
10. Research flight schedules to make sure that getting from Canberra to Bologna and back fits with the dates chosen with little dead time. To take a touring bike means that 20Kg luggage may not be sufficient, so Emirates/QANTAS or Etihad/Virgin with their 30Kg limits are the go! Capture all this in a spreadsheet too.
11. Initiate contact with those overnight hotels that might be problematic (where there may be little or no choice or demand may be high). Bookings will wait until after flights are booked.
12. Create this blog with the same name as the Wiki, just to be tidy.
13. Wait for September so that flights can be priced and booked.
14. Then it is just a year of waiting, dreaming and hopefully some training :-)