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.

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).

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.

My last booking done!

... well not counting a few train tickets etc. but all my accommodation is now booked.

I finally bit the bullet and booked the night at the Dubai Airport Hotel on the way home. It is about 10 hours from arrival to departure which is more than enough for a good night's sleep. The hotel is expensive, but if I went out and came back in again I'd lose two or three of those hours because of customs, immigration, dealing with my bike in both directions etc.

On-bike luggage

First there is the stuff I need every day which is mounted on the bike:

• Bidon
• GPS
• Pump
• Tail light
• Saddlebag with tube and tools
• Phone in waterproof mount

or will be in the handlebar bag:

• Map case with cue cards
• Camera
• Wallet
• Bike lock
• Sunscreen
• GoPuck and cable

Depending on the forecast:

• Arm warmers
• Jacket
• Cap
• Sandals

Personal decision - I'll take my bike

G. has provided me with feedback on the route for the second day and I will heed his advice.  From San Miniato to Empoli I'll choose a slightly longer but considerably quieter route. It is all pretty flat on the Arno plain. I only noticed yesterday that just before we get to Empoli the route crosses the Elsa river. Last time we rode in Toscana we crossed the river in Colle Di Val D'Elsa. Another arm flows through Poggibonsi.

So I've been thinking... rent or carry? I've decided on carry. Given that it would cost around E400 to rent something decent it makes more sense to take my touring bike which  I know is perfectly set up for the task. The only downside is the cheap Torpedo 7 bike bag which provides OK protection but which sucks for wheeling the bike in bag from airport to train or train to hotel. So for less money than hiring a bike I can buy one of the Evoc bags from Wiggle which will be much easier to handle. Based on the design of the Evoc I may make some modifications to the Torpedo 7 bag to make it more rigid and easier to wheel. So I'll pack the Evoc to close to 30Kg and take only a backpack and handlebar bag as other luggage. Of course I've still got plenty of time to change my mind again before then.

Update

My Evoc bag has arrived and looks very good. Now I'll have to test it on a domestic trip somewhere!

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 :-)