geeteetravels

This may be a bit short because we are on a ferry over to Isola del Giglio and I don’t want to miss too much of the action.
We stayed last night in Grosseto at the B&B Ricasole run by a lovely woman named Fulvia who was a super hostess and really worked at making her B&B numero uno. She put on a great breakfast including of course coffee of your choosing but also homemade nutella tarts (not so good for Tara). Yummy, and great calories for burning on the bike. After all the kissing and hugging with Fulvia we were off headed back towards the sea and our last chance for topless sunbathing. After our little dialogue with the friendly Polizia yesterday we checked the preplanned route carefully to assure we would be travelling on legal roads for bicycles. As a result we were in for some climbing on the small roads which generally have many rewards like the best views, the least traffic, and making great big muscles. Montiano was the literal high point today, its name being a clue to its altitude.  A lot of water was consumed throughout the day as 30 degrees is now becoming the norm for temperature.  Lunch was a simple roadside stop under trees for shade as the seaside was still 20km away.  Apart from the mountain, the ride through the country was quite relaxed and beautiful, scooting by olive groves, grapes, and a lot of tomato plants. Our destination is an interesting bit of geography, consisting of the island of Argentario but connected to the mainland by three narrow isthmus(es), one of which has the town of Orbetello, and our hotel. We walked into the old part of town for the requisite gelato and beer after a hot and pseudo-demanding day’s ride. First impression was it wasn’t that pretty and not what we expected for a seaside stop, but the beer was still cold.  Supper turned out to be a treat as we hunted down tripadvisor’s no.1 rated Orbetello restaurant. More than the typical italian fare, it had splashes of international flavours such as curry.   I had some grilled tuna which the owner and I had a very enthusiastic conversation about. It was as if he knew the fish personally as it was caught and flash frozen recently off of Sicily. Great fun.

Sometimes our bikes are parked with us, and may need to go up and down spiral stairs

Traditionally Tara receives a temporary chain tattoo every day. This one shows particularly excellent link definition

Hot lunch in Tuscany

Moving day after a 2 night stay on Elba. One could easily stay here for a couple of weeks and cycle or hike the length and breadth of the place but off we go. We ate breakfast quickly because we had a ferry to catch at 09:30 and we had to ride a few km to get there and buy the correct tickets this time. No worries, armed with prior knowledge we negotiated every obstacle and got easily on board on time.
We had a long (for us) ride of about 80km once onto the mainland again with some uphill for a change. Also the weather had really started to turn into summer with today coming out hot at 29 degrees and no clouds once the morning mist had burned off. After grabbing a few lunch groceries in Piombino we headed for Follonica 30km along the route and another seaside lunch spot. We had no trouble getting to Follonica where at last it was hot enough that people were out on the beach and even getting into the swim. Off we went again but about 15km out we stopped because we had a funny feeling the GPS(s) were leading us astray again as we were on a major highway while my plan was for less busy roads. But by that point we would have to backtrack all 15km and the busy road had a nice shoulder by italian standards so we continued. It was really hot by then and we were taking breaks every 10km or so at one of the frequent pullouts out of the way of traffic. At 20km from our destination while taking a break the police pulled in behind us in a nice azzurro Alfa Romeo and told us, using the universal crossing of the wrists sign, that we were all under arrest for riding on this major highway. They were friendly enough though, didn’t haul us away, and gave us an escort off the highway to the next exit. Luckily by this time there was a parallel minor road so no real loss for us.
We found our B&B inside the old fortified and completely intact city walls of Grosseto and then quickly went in search of gelato and birra to try and get something back from the heat. Fortunately these commodities are never far away in Italy.
After a shower and some laundry we were out looking for the highlights of Grosseto with Tara wielding the map. Most of the area inside the old walls is strictly pedestrian so it was another easy walk around with all the residents seemingly also out for the evening stroll and check out of their neighbours.
After a good supper at one of the restaurants our hostess recommended we were ready for bed.

Arriverderci Elba

Summer has truly begun in Italy

Our tour guide

The passegiata is the evening stroll in Italy

Beautiful details on the office of civil engineering (really)

At the well of the buffalo where there was a blood donor clinic in progress. We wanted a donation but were refused

In the main piazza just a few steps from our B&B

Today was a day as it should be. It started with a good breakfast of fruit, cereal and yoghurt followed by an italian breakfast featuring capucchino and pastry, this time filled with Nutella. Tara can’t have the bread before riding but she can have chocolate, but not Nutella since it is made of hazelnuts. Bummer ’cause it is good!
We had a straight forward ride south to catch the ferry to Elba except for one excellent diversion. When I started planning this trip one of the first bits I put on the list was a ride between Sassetta and Suverito, reportedly to be the most fun and scenic ride in all of Italy. So… we diverted from our flat coastal riding to climb 350m to Sassetta. The views were great but the road and route were unbelievable! 15km of the most fun you will ever have on a bicycle. Gently flowing downhill over the entire distance and never going longer than 50m without another hairpin turn, and and No traffic! Magnifico!
Ok, enough with the exclamations already. After that disneylandish stretch we booted to the ferry. It runs very frequently with 2 different companies vying for your business. I bought the tickets for all of us from a pseudo english speaking ticket lady who I thought had understood what I wanted, but… It ended up ok but instead of getting round trip tickets for 4 people and 2 bikes I only purchased one way tickets for 2 people and 2bikes. Between the purchase and the”ok” bit the captain seized my precious passport as ransom to assure we bought the other 2 tickets needed. Yikes.
It’s a quick ferry trip to Elba and the weather was completely gorgeous for us. In fact the forecast looks brilliant for the rest of the cycling now.
Our hotel is more like a resort with a great pool but it’s a ways out of town. We had to search a bit to find supper and ended up with a 1/2m long pizza from a hole in the wall takeout place and a bottle of wine from the hotel bar. What a fabuloso gionata.

Breakfast capucchini and brioche in Marina di Cecina

We get to take pictures of the other half of the team

Severito is the backdrop of this shot

Here comes the Moby ferry to Elba

.. And our friends can take pictures of us

Supper was your basic half a metre of pizza and a bottle of wine

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

This was quite a rainy day in Pisa, we definitely used the rain coats that we had been carrying. We headed back to the torre pendente (leaning tower) and cathedral area to take in some indoor activities. We chose not to climb the tower as it was a cloudy day and they charge too much so we looked in the museum and cathedral instead. The museum was quite interesting as it housed many of the original artifacts, paintings, statues, gargoyles, etc. from the cathedral as it has been refurbished many times since it was built in the 11th and 12th centuries. The cathedral also is very beautiful and ornate with a particularly notable pulpit carved by a Giovani Pisano. It features some very Islamic features such as striped masonry and a griffin on the roof.
After this we ran through the pouring rain to meet our friends Katharine and Rob Whitworth at the train station, after their long flight from Calgary via Amsterdam. We helped them get to the hotel and get their bike together before going for a walk around the city and finding a good Italian supper of pasta and red wine.

The train station was only 5 minutes away which was good for a 7 ish train to Rome. We zoomed past a few of our scheduled bike route destinations and arrived there by 10am. We found our way to the Canadian embassy and got the process underway. We had to have photos done and supply them with 4 references whom they called at the end of the day which was morning at home. We warned our good friends at home that they would be getting an important call and to be available so as not to delay the process. We only had 2 days to get this done and be back to meet our friends in Pisa. It all worked out in the end and George was once again a Canadian citizen with documentation. The embassy staff treated us well and were efficient. Of course there was a cost involved and it was considerably more than getting a new passport at home.
While in Roma we stayed at a B&B that was only a bed, no breakfast. Perhaps they thought that stood for bed and bathroom? We are not sure but it seemed a bit shady there. Oh well we had a place to sleep. We spent time wandering around looking at all the ruins, monuments, fountains and piazzas that Roma is famous for as well as the Modern Art Gallery, and a museum exhibition about Archimedes. What a clever man he was.
We caught the train back to Pisa that evening to restart the cycling.

So happy to be going to Rome instead of being in the Cinque Terre …

You can’t go to Rome without getting a coffee at Cafe St. Eustachio

The infamous B without B (or WiFi) Alex.

The Pantheon

At the Trevi Fountain

New wallet and the Papal (its white and comes from Rome) passeporto

Hanging out with Herc

Its crowded everywhere in Rome but no moreso than at the Spanish Steps (Tara in lower left)

In the morning we called the embassy in Roma to report the lost and stolen passport and find what was necessary to get a temporary passport sent to us. Right off they said we would have to get to Roma ourselves to fill out the forms, get photos taken and answer questions. My heart sank because to that point I thought a day’s delay and a bunch of money (fees, lost reservations …) was all we were faced with. Now cinque terre was out and we had to get to Roma. So we packed up and headed for the Carabinieri and then back to Pisa. We found the Carabinieri office without trouble and knocked on the door. I was met by a young officer who knew less English than I know Italian. By then I had figured out how to say that I had lost my passport, etc. so he filled out an official report for me which was what the embassy had requested. Off we cycled to Pisa the same way we came and checked back in to the same hotel. We found information on train schedules and tickets and a cheap hotel in the area between the train station and the embassy (I love booking.com). The hotel in Pisa will get a 5 star rating from me for taking great care of us. OK, we were set to get to Roma the next morning early.

OK, so you might be wondering about why the blog withered after only 2 days of entertainment. To be honest I had a sudden loss of enthusiasm after the events of day 3, the first day’s ride from Pisa to Marina di Massa, and I am now just getting back my Mojo. Here’s the story.
It started well with a clear sky, and moderate temperature and the team getting the feeling back as we hit the road and remembered what to do. The ride out of Pisa heading north and west was flat and easy. We got down to the beach road as planned and expected an easy first day. We stopped at a park to eat our lunch which we would normally do. The trouble began when we finished and left without the small fanny pack I almost never remove from my body because it contains everything valuable I own on the trip. Yes, that one, the one with my passport, wallet with 3 credit/debit cards and 30 euros, regular glasses. phone, and swiss army knife. 5km later when we arrived at our destination, a campsite with bungalows, I realized what had happened. We quickly got back on the bike and pedalled hard back the way we came. Then, unbelievably, a km back down the road my bike seat exploded out from under me and the pieces littered the road. In fact the seat post to seat bolt had broken so the seat and its mount just fell on the road. I still needed to get back quickly to the park so we unloaded the bike and put Tara’s seat in the front spot so I could ride solo. In the process of doing that the screw to tighten the seat post stripped its mount so we were down to only 1 of those too. Aarrghh! Leaving Tara on the sidewalk with the panniers I returned to the park and an empty bench where my pack should have been. This was one of those moments when you find it hard to believe what is real because the consequences are too ugly to think about. I looked all over of course and went to speak with a couple who were picnicking on the grass, and had been earlier, to see if they had seen anything, I managed to communicate what my problem was and they called the police for me. I spent more time looking around, perhaps for the empty pack or something left behind but I found nothing and the police were taking forever to show up. Finally they did but could do nothing but take my name and a description of what was lost and then stolen with some forwarding information. I rode back to Tara who knew by now nothing good had transpired but was worried about what else could have happened to me in the hour and a half I had been gone. We loaded up and got to the campsite with me riding the seat post. We checked in for 2 nights instead of one thinking we could still get to the Cinque Terre if we had a day to call the banks to cancel and block everything, and the Canadian embassy about the passport. We owe a great deal to Stephania at the campsite for letting us have free reign of her phone and helping with the language calls, at no expense to us. Again thanks to Stephania she confirmed there was a bike shop only 400m down the road so we walked there and retrieved the bits we needed to make the bike functional for both of us again. I still had to get to the Carabinieri (federal police) office to get an official record of the loss in order to ease getting a new passport. After that the embassy, but we went to bed thinking about that as tomorrow’s plan.

Il mare, la mer, the sea

The day came early for us although we slept well enough. We’re still in mid-atlantic time making our way east in our brains. The hotel cost included breakfast, and I find almost all of the hotels I booked for this year’s trip are the same in this regard. Contrast that to France where almost never is it included. We weren’t expecting much as italians are known for having a shot of espresso and a pastry on the run to cover their first meal of the day (colazione). So we were surprised to find a great variety of healthy foods available including a proper espresso or cappuccino served with a smile. Muesli, yoghurt, fresh rolls, cheese, salami, butter, jam, fruit, juice – great! We got a bit carried away in fact so we only snacked at lunch.
Next up on a bit of an overcast day was to get a SIM card with data hookup from one of the several cellular providers. By my research TIM had the best coverage and a good deal for their package so we went to find the local TIM shop, which was only a couple of blocks away. Luckily the sole guy in the shop could understand techno-inglese and we were hooked up and out of there in short order. I bought a rechargeable (pay-as-you-go) SIM for 20euro which included 15euro credit. Their max internet plan is 10euro for a month for 1 Gb (gee-gah-beet said our man) which of course is ridiculously cheap by Canadian standards. It was up and running before we left the shop – cross that challenge off.
We then went and found a grocery store to pick up a bit of food for the road which also turned out to be no problem. Because of her food related exercise induced allergy Tara has to be extremely careful eating while cycling, and she gets very tired of eating muesli with warm yoghurt on a hot day for lunch. We’re trying to branch out from that menu and still stay safe.
Of course the most important activity of the day was getting the bike reassembled. It was sitting in an outside courtyard and the clouds let loose a lot of rain mid-day for a few hours so we had to wait it out. The blue sky reappeared and we quickly got it to look much like a tandem again leaving a few bits off for assembly on the street and trial run in the morning. We actually have to wheel it down a couple of hallways and take it down some spiral stairs so leaving off the pedals and chains to make it easier was our thought.
Having accomplished what we needed we headed out for a leisurely walk around and to find another good Pisan restaurant. We went close by the tower to find an open restaurant. Monday evenings can be bad as most restaurants take that evening off so sometimes you have to head to a more touristic area to get something to eat. No problem, we did well so that’s 2 for 2 for good cheap suppers in Italy.

Bike assembly on the terrazzo.

I love the predictability of the tourists.

Yes it rains in Pisa.

Church alongside the Arno.

Another Arno picture.