Bob and Ann in Italy 2011

I left Massa Maritima shortly after 8:30 with Julie Leever and Matt Walthen. The sky was clear and the temperature was reasonably cool. The first few miles of our route duplicated the loop ride from Massa Maritima a couple of days earlier. We had a gentle climb past a field of red poppies and through a green forest of deciduous trees. Dropping down the other side of the climb, we descended through more fields and alongside a creek. It got fairly cool here and we told each other to remember this at 2:00 when it would be hot.

We soon reached the next major climb of the day and were surprised how gentle it was. This was in sharp contrast to yesterday’s ride. We stopped a few times for photo ops and to get refreshments from the van. Tom Leever was today’s driver and he had water, bananas, etc. for us. I took a photo of Radicondoli where I had stopped for lunch two years ago.

Continuing on, we climbed into Casole d’ Elsa. This was our lunch stop. Julie remembered a good pizzeria where we could buy pizza by the slice. It was with a crispy focaccia crust – very nice. We ate our choices with cold peach tea.

Matt Posing at the Statue

There is a famous statue in Casole d’ Elsa that Tom challenged everyone to find. I have been here before so I knew where it was. I took Matt’s photo next to it.

We left Casole d’ Elsa in high spirits ready to tackle the next 15 km to our hotel. Unfortunately, we missed one of our turns and dragged Dave and Eric Hansen with us. Naturally we discovered our error at the bottom of a hill. Rather than climb back to the turn, we checked our map and found a new route. This route, on a the map's "white road", involved dirt, rocks and gravel. At a point on a farm road in the middle of a field where we felt really lost, a man was walking up the “road” and Julie with her fluent Italian was able to ask him if we were going the right way. We were, and after a couple of kms alternated between riding and walking we ended back on route.

We stopped at a bicycle shop that was slightly off of our route. We had some purchases to make. I needed water bottles and Matt needed other things. The shop was closed for lunch, so we rode on to our hotel.

Our hotel, Il Piccolo Castello , is a four-star “resort” with a large swimming pool. My room is big, clean and comfortable.

Happy Hour

We had Happy Hour alongside the pool. Then we had dinner on a covered terrace. It was a fixed meal. We started with risotto mixed with herbs and maybe spinach. Then we had very small pieces of veal with string beans. Dessert was two small wedges of ice cream cake with chocolate sauce. A light meal like this is OK with me because it’s very close to bed time and I don’t like to go to bed with a full stomach.

Here is today's ride.