BAC Green Roads Of Tuscany 2009

Tom was nice to us today. Climbing was limited to a couple of moderate uphills. We had lots of good downhills all the way into Florence. Being Sunday, traffic was reasonably light except in some of the larger towns. Also, there were hundreds of cyclists on the road, most of them dressed in their club colors. The weather was perfect.

I rode most of the way with Julie. I lost her when I missed a turn about 5k from the end of the ride. I stopped and ate a banana after the wrong turn and waited for her. When she didn’t appear, I looked at my cue sheet and discovered where I went wrong. I backtracked about 100 meters, made the correct turn and followed the route sheet to our hotel. The time was 11:25, the earliest that I have arrived. I pulled into the garage, took apart my Bike Friday, packed it into its case and checked into Hotel Silla in Florence. I’m in the same room as before so everything is familiar.

After cleaning up, I contacted the local United Airlines office (which is in India) about the cancelled leg of my trip home. The Florence to Munich leg was run by Lufthansa. UAL couldn’t contact Lufthansa because the frequent flyer desk is closed on the weekend. I gave up on the local UAL office and decided to eat lunch. I had a good pizza with fresh tomatoes, corn and arugula. I was going to go to a store and buy an international phone card so I could call UAL in the States at a cheap rate. While I was eating, Claudia and Barry walked in and asked me if I wanted to use their internet phone instead. I jumped on the offer. It’s a good thing I did because the call lasted over an hour before UAL could get me rebooked. The device is called MagicJack and it’s a must for world travel.

I will be coming home a day late, but I’m not going to complain. It’s an extra day in Florence.

We had an informal Happy Hour tonight. Because my room was closest to the terrace, most of our goodies were here. (The hotel management frowns on bringing your own wine and appetizers onto the patio). Now there are lots of leftovers in my room that I am forced to take care of in the next couple of days. (I should have such problems!). Speaking of dinner, a bunch of us went to a tratterria across the street from the hotel. Several of us ordered the ravioli with pear and cheese. Surprisingly, it was very good. It had a white sauce and it was sort of sweet and pungent. I also had smoked swordfish with arugula and tomatoes. After dinner, several of us sampled gelato at a nearby gelateria in the middle of the swinging singles scene near our hotel.

Daily Statistics

Please take a simulated tour of the route.

Elevation Profile (Click to Enlarge)