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.

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.

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!