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!

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

My packing list

EVOC travel case: 22Kg as packed

• Bike with bidon and pump, phone case
• Hex driver set, pedal spanner, zip ties
• Underseat bag with tube, tyre levers, multi-tool, inflater, puncture kit
• Container with chain lube, degreaser, tyre sealant, chux, spare CO2 cylinders, spoke tool, valve tool
• Spare tyre and spare spokes

Salewa backpack: 7Kg as packed

• Knicks*2, jerseys*2, gloves*2, socks*2, cap,
• Arm warmers, spray jacket, baselayer, 
• Helmet
• Socks, hankies, knickers (3+)
• Hat, swimmers
• Shirts (3+)
• Shorts
• Trousers
• Cycling shoes

Salewa day pack:

• Electrolytes, chamois cream
• Tail light
• Handlebar bag, GPS, map case
• D-lock
• Cycling glasses in soft case
• Bathroom bag+basic pharma+sunscreen
• Detergent for four washes
• Camera spare battery, wifi module, charger and gorillapod, USB chargers
• Fresh shirt and undies

Pacsafe shoulder bag: waiting on phone, glasses and wallet

• Wallet, passport, ticket
• GoPuck with the three USB cables, second microUSB cable
• Camera and second lens
• Phone, headphones, Kobo
• Glasses in case

Wearing:

• Light jacket, LS shirt, shoes, socks, knickers, trousers with plaited belt

Dress rehearsal

I travelled by plane to spend Easter with my parents. As well as being about seeing them it was also a dress rehearsal for the Italy trip.

• My touring bike in the Evoc case travelled safely, and even including helmet, shoes and cycling clothing in the bag it was 22Kg.
• The route was plane to Brisbane and then train to the Gold Coast, very similar to the luggage handling I'll have to do via FCO. Coming back there was track work and so we had to change to bus from South Brisbane to Roma Street... no problem.
• The bike case wheels pretty well.
• I rode three days in a row, and the first two days were pretty similar in profile and distance to the first two days from Viareggio to Greve in Chianti. I felt pretty good after each day's ride.
• The camera coped well, especially in terms of battery life. I can easily get two days of moderate use out of a battery, so with two fully charged I'll be in good shape.
• On thing I will have to take to Italy is the charger cable for my Pebble. Not needed for five days but certainly required for two weeks!

All in all a successful trial run. Now I just have to stay in some sort of condition over the winter.

At least I have a few events planned for May and June, the NSW Discovery weekend at Bateman's Bay and Melburn Roobaix and another trip to the Gold Coast in August.

Things to be done much closer to the event

Still to be done

• Confirm the arrangements for arrival at Montecarlo (waiting on input from Marie and Julie).

Soon after we arrive in Italy

• Buy local SIMs and distribute phone numbers including to Giovanni.

The numbers grow!

So now we are four! Julie and Marie are now committed to the trip as non-riding, non-driving participants. So it turns out that the best option for the majority of the days is to parallel what we on the bikes are doing, but at a more leisurely schedule given that it is typically only 30 minutes to 90 minutes travel time by bicycle.

So the wiki has been updated with a program for the non cyclists and all the hotel bookings have been increased to be 1+1+2 (except for the Novafeltria night when the two ladies will go on to Longiano). The only other significant change recommended for the non cyclists is to skip Viareggio and spend more time in Lucca.

This will work well for luggage logistics also since on many days our luggage can accompany the ladies!

Four is a much nicer number to travel with than two (no offence to Keith), so I am really pleased!

Of course there is still room for one or two more...

Accommodation all booked

... well at least for me.

In most locations I have reserved two single rooms. I've only booked one room for Firenze because for others the dates will depend on arrival/departure arrangements. I have also booked for the night of my arrival in Italia. I've decided to stay at the coastal town of Fiumicino (where the airport is) rather than go into Rome, because with an 20:05 arrival it will probably be pretty late by the time I get to the hotel.

The next day I can get up as late as I want, then take a shuttle or taxi to Tiburtina station to board the train to Firenze.

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.

Weighing it all up

Luggage Allowance

The checked luggage allowance is 30Kg. Based on the Gold Coast trip, the touring bike packed into the EVOC travel case, with wheels, pump, spares and tools is 20kg.

So for my remaining ten kilograms...

The Salewa backpack with the day pack zipped off is 2.3 kilograms. That means seven kilograms of clothing etc. Then I can use the Salewa day pack as my carry on for 6.5Kg of denser stuff (shoes, toiletries...). I'll probably put my cycling shoes in here too.

I will also take one of the Pacsafe shoulder bags, probably the larger (blue) one to hold most of the electronics.

When I arrive at Fiumicino, I'll recombine the two packs, giving me two hands free to handle the bike! Then in Firenze, it will be time to repack into on-bike and off-bike so that only one bag needs to be carried from town to town.

bikemap.net is not living up to expectations

I'm afraid I am going to have to move the map display of the daily routes from bikemap.net. It is proving too unreliable. Such as shame as the presentation (when it works) is really good.

Update: I have moved all the presentation to http://www.gpsies.com which has exactly what I need, and Klaus Bechtold, the site owner has been incredibly responsive in answering my questions. The wiki now contains links to GPSies for:

• The overall route overview map
• The route map for each day
• A QR code link for each day (takes you to that day's route at GPSies)

As an added benefit, the daily maps allow you to download a copy of the route in multiple formats.

Flights booked

What a saga! The codesharing and the cutthroat nature of the airline business means that it now takes a fair bit of hunting to find the best and cheapest deal. Eventually with bestflights.com.au I was able to get a $1750 airfare which has pretty good itinerary, out via Melbourne and in via Sydney. QANTAS branding the whole way although most segments are really Emirates.

Arrive in Rome at around 8pm on Saturday night, so I'll probably find a local hotel at Fiumicino or in Roma near the train station.

Only drawback is a nine hour stopover in Dubai on the way back... probably worth crashing at the airport hotel.

I got the insurance sorted too.

Which flights?

The September 2014 flights are now becoming available on the web at Emirates. As of today the 24th, the open window goes up until the 16th September, whereas I need the 20th. So four more days until I can book. The price for most flight itineraries is $1615 return.

Right now the best combo for me is:

Outbound

EK0413 leaves Sydney at 21:10 on Friday, and after a three hour break in Dubai arrives in Rome at 13:15 on Saturday, so I can make a 5pm flight or thereabouts from Canberra.

Return

EK0096 Saturday at 22:00 from Rome, arriving after a four hour stop in Dubai at 06:05 on Monday. Plenty of time time make it to work. There has to be some advantage in having an office at BBP :-)

Blare of trumpets!

I have sent the email invitations to participate to the first group of people. 

Map presentation

If you have visited the wiki at https://sites.google.com/a/keogh.net.au/apennines/home, the pages for the individual days have a map of the day's ride. These have been built using the online facility at www.bikemap.net, using the .GPX files originally built in Garmin Basecamp. The bikemap.net site has been going through some glitches as a consequence of a major upgrade to the site's software. I hope it stabilises soon. One of the "coming soon" features that was broken by the upgrade will allow me to replace the primitive map that is on the home page.

Perhaps one day Google Maps will have similar functionality and I will be able to use it instead.

Early Bird fares are out

The Emirates early bird fares for next year are out. They are cheaper than the same fares in 2010 and 2012!

Move to the Googleplex completed

Perhaps it is a sickness, but I tend to plan trips, especially overseas ones well in advance. That gives me the security of knowing that I can book what I want, when I want it. It gives me the luxury of having plenty of time to plan, to optimise, to replan...

It also means that I have MORE THAN A YEAR to wait for the ride, so to alleviate some of the boredom this is likely to turn into the best documented Italy trip ever :-)

To go back a few years, here is how our trips have progressed:

• In 2003 we visited Spain. This was the first of our web-documented trips, with a dedicated, hand-crafted web site and photo storage after the event on Flickr.
• 2004 was Turkey. There wasn't much planning to do (a bus tour) but I did blog the trip and collect my photos.
• 2006 was NZ (Central Otago) and there was a planning web site, once again hand crafted.
• 2008 and 2010 were in Italy. For each there is a wiki at PBworks, a blog at Wordpress and a photo set on Flickr. Note three different suppliers of free cloud resources: the best there were at the time.
• 2012 was back in Spain. By now my move to the integrated Google environment was started: the Blog was moved to Blogger to get better integration for photo uploading etc. from Android devices. However there is still a PBworks wiki and I still use Flickr as the ultimate photo repository.

So now it is time to plan for 2014 and the move to consolidate it all in the Googleplex is finished.

These already exist:

• The wiki at https://sites.google.com/a/keogh.net.au/apennines/ which is the "knowledge base". Everyone who "signs up" for the trip can modify these pages.
• The blog at http://apennines.blogspot.com.au/ which is a narrative of the planning and the trip itself: my view of it.
• A Google+ page at https://plus.google.com/117699810052162622303 which may well end up as the short term storage for photos.
• All the document and file storage (.GPX files, insurance documentation etc.) in Google Drive.
• A Google Calendar to hold a day by day schedule.

I will of course also create a Flickr group when the time comes. I hope that some or all of this will be enjoyable, or a useful resource, or at least a chilling warning about OCD behaviour :-)