Marina di Cecina – day 9

OK – the trip rebooted has begun!  We woke to rain, more than a little but we weren’t in a hurry and the forecast was for better.  We ate another great breakfast courtesy of the Hotel la Torre, and said arriverderci for another two weeks. These guys have been great, and they now have Rob and Katherine’s case(s) to look after as well as ours. Before heading south we still had to get new SIM cards with the TIM office which did not open until 9:00am. I had blocked my first italian number when the phone was stolen but I thought I would still have some credit on the account, but no. New SIM card, new phone number, and no credit. Rob also wanted to register his iphone so we got all that done and headed out.
We headed the first 15km SW to Livorno under now mostly sunny and improving skies, getting into the historic center of town without any trouble. We did allow the GPS a little too much latitude as it guided us to the outskirts in an unintended direction. Fortunately there was a large supermercato where it took us so we stocked up on lunch supplies before backtracking into the center to sit and eat our lunch. From there it was an uneventful and very scenic ride down the “etruscan riviera” to Marina di Cecina for about 73 km worth including the 5km diversion. We had a beer! in the sunshine after checking in, cleaning up and parking the bikes in the shed made for that purpose. The hotel offered a ristorante so we had another good meal and then strolled along with a gelato to finish the day off well. The island of Elba tomorrow!

The expanded team ready to get out of Pisa

While the men were in the TIM office getting their toys registered with italian phone numbers, the women were watching how to do a couch delivery from the outside

Tara's new over the shoulder view

Typical Italian beach, you pay for your spot

Gelato is always a good way to finish