We started (as usual) with breakfast...this morning at the Pisa hotel. We were possibly going to be meeting a few members of our new group, but had no idea who they were. Funny, but we somehow managed to hook up with them minutes after sitting down with our croissants and coffee. Brian—a computer hardware developer from Austin, TX—was easy to spot in his Curious George cycling shirt.
We had been talking to Brian for about 10 minutes when John—the photographer (and performer)—came in. He’s a very funny guy and we knew he’d be life of the party/ride. As the four of us were talking, I pulled my ride sheet off the table and managed to elbow some poor woman in the thigh, thus welcoming Jeannie—a very smart and charming lady—to our newly formed group.
After breakfast we met up with Lyn and hopped a train to Empoli where we were to start our ride to our first stop, Certaldo. We knew from the conversation on the train this was going to be a fun/interesting journey. Unfortunately, Lyn was leaving us for Paris to prepare for his next group later that day, but we would be meeting our new coordinator at the Empoli train station.
At Empoli we got our bikes, packed our panniers (and left our luggage), and started the ride. The rest of the group was waiting for the Blue Marble van with their bikes and a brief orientation, but they would only be an hour or two behind us (remember this seemingly unimportant time span when you're reading about the torrential rains that hit in and around Certaldo).
We also had the pleasure of meeting Nicolas as he was on site at the train station doing whatever he did in the background to allow us to not have to worry about a lot of things--thanks Nicolas!
The difference in the two regions of this trip--Provence and Tuscany--were evident early on…the pace in Italy seemed a bit quicker and the people friendlier. There were also ‘real’ cyclists all over the place. In our first hour of riding, we must have, ah, been passed by 20-30 of them in their matching spandex and bikes likely costing 1000’s of Euros.
This passing thing might have bothered us more, but they were so nice as they rode by…”Ciao!” whoosh…. “Ciao!” whoosh…”Ciao!... Ciao!... Ciao!” whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. We’re not sure, but we thought we heard some chuckling as a few of the ‘pros’ passed us (but maybe that was just our cycling insecurities at work).
We kind of knew what we were in for by the classification of the ride on the website (“moderate to challenging”) and subtle hint from Lyn (“Tuscany has a lot of hills!”), but we were not expecting the ride we made. It had to have been 65% - 70% uphill at various grades. The first hill was so steep that we abandoned our bikes a third of the way up and walked for a couple hundred meters. Today’s ride was the most difficult yet.
The only way the trip got better this day was a) the hills—while there were a lot of them—were not as steep as the first one, and b) the hotel that was waiting for us was wonderful and better that we ever expected. We also missed the torrential rains later that afternoon, but everyone else was stuck in them (for hours), so I won’t actually list that as a plus.
Certaldo is another (smaller) medieval fortress town, minus much of the touristy stuff and garbage on the ground we encountered in some of the other more popular areas. We rode up to it and both liked it immediately. Everything is brick…the outer walls, the streets, and all of the buildings. And it was clean and quiet. We made our way up to the to the top and to our hotel, the Osteria del Vicario. We were the first to arrive.
We walked in the hotel and loved it immediately. We did our check-in with Sarah, who manages the hotel...she was great,very welcoming. Our room (#3) was too cool. It was on the smaller side, consistent with most of the other hotels where we've stayed, but what it lacked in American hotel room size it more than made up for in charm. The entire wall behind the bed was a hand-painted mural. The hotel itself is small--5 rooms--but they can accommodate more people in equally wonderful rooms in a hotel down the street.
Then the rain…not just heavy rain like we had on our second day in Provence, but a downpour that lasted for a couple of hours. Seeing as we were the only ones in the hotel, we knew that the rest of the people in our group were somewhere in the rain.
Then we started hearing voices…actually it was the Blue Marble people—Lyn (who ended up riding with the new group much of the distance to Certaldo) and our new coordinator Catherine—making phone calls and figuring out how to get the rest of the group to the hotel. Somehow they did it...the rain stopped (wow, they’re good!).
People started trickling in…first Rick and Zhen from Berkeley, CA. We saw them walking up the hill to the hotel, soaked. Shortly after they got to the hotel, we saw John on the road up, sitting with two bikes and no Jeannie…also soaked. Jeannie was a few steps behind him and neither of them looked too happy.
Ten minutes after pointing them in the direction of the hotel, we saw the final three walking up the road—without their bikes. They had the same looks on their faces as the others when they arrived…all were obviously tired, cold, and soaking wet. This group was Leslie from Canada, Jan from Denver, and Brian who we had met earlier in the day.
Damon and I couldn’t help thinking—with the difficulty of the ride and the torrential rains—if this had been our first day, would we have made it to the second? I’d like to think yes, but just glad we had that first week of practice.
That evening we ate (a lot), drank and got to know the rest of the group. We knew pretty much immediately this was going to be a perfect set of personalities for this leg of the trip. Just as our Provence cohorts mimicked the calmer, more laid back attitude of southern France, this new group was larger and a bit wilder—can’t wait!
Tomorrow is a trip to San Gimignano…touted as the “Manhattan of Tuscany”…we’ll be the judge of that(!)
Day 9 Stats:
- Ride Sheet - Empoli to Certaldo (39 k)
- Actual Ride - at least 39 k
- Lunch - Montespertoli
- To Remember - Views on the way, The Rain(!), The Hotel Staff and Room, Meeting Catherine, So much food for dinner
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