Accommodation sorted

All the accommodation is now sorted (assuming that Keith and Julie book their room at Fiumicino and Marie arrives in Firenze on the Sunday)! I received the last confirmation over night.

Next web task is to update the non-cyclists page with the detailed plans. We'll need to settle on the time for J&M to arrive at Altopascio from Lucca since the nice people from Montecarlo have offered to pick them up from the station.

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...

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.

Luggage transfers?

Just in case... I have sent out feelers to several companies that might be in the business of offering luggage transportation services. I have had a couple of "no sorry" replies, and only one positive one, who want to charge €2400 for the eight transfers, approximately twice what I'd see as reasonable. Not that I think that we need this service anyway, but when the group is finally confirmed it would be good to be able to offer the choice. I have also asked Andrea of Vinarium (who we used on our last trip to Tuscany) for pricing and he has quoted €1750.

Also, thinking that the Emilia Romagna transfers might be costly coming from Firenze, I have asked Davide who has the taxi service in Novafeltria. His prices like quite reasonable, so given that some of the other sectors are quite short (via the main road), I am encouraged to think that the entire trip's transfers could be organised for significantly less than €100 per day, using only three taxi services (Firenze, Arezzo and Novafeltria). This is what I have found:

As yet unidentified:

• From Firenze to Montecarlo
• From Montecarlo to Firenze

For this two it is only one night away, we should be able to carry one night's requirements without panniers. I'd use handlebar bag + under seat and that should cover it. The other possibility is to get the train from Firenze to Montecarlo, drop off the luggage there (the station is still 2Km from our hotel), then ride the 5Km down to Altopascio and catch the train onwards from there. This still leaves the issue of how to get it back to Firenze on the 10th. I have asked the hotel in Montecarlo for some advice...

• From Firenze to Greve in Chianti (this one should be easy by taxi)

From Arezzo taxi:

• From Greve in Chianti to Arezzo €132
• From Arezzo to Anghiari €50

From Novafeltria taxi:

• From Anghiari to Novafeltria cost €90
• From Novafeltria to Longiano cost €50
• From Longiano to Rimini cost €50