Day 10 - Rest Day in Florence
It is good to have a rest day every now and then and throughout this trip we are planning on doing this about 1 day every week.
Being used to waking early made for an early rise this morning.
Last evening on the walk around Florence we purchased some breakfast from the supermarket which was an ideal start for the day.
Whilst talking about last evening we met a friend of Chris’s and he enjoyed dinner with us at the hostel which was a ham salad that was purchased from the supermarket. Chris’s friend, Tom is from Christchurch in NZ and has biked from Amsterdam to Pisa and then took the train to Florence. Tom was interesting and he spoke of his trip over the Alps and all the snow that was still on the ground at the top of the pass. We suspect that the top of Stelvio will be similar! Bit of a change to the hot humid conditions we are experiencing here….
After breakfast we did a group planning session to map out the route and overnight stops for the next “chunk” of the trip. We are dividing the whole trip into “chunks “ of about 400 kms or about a week of riding. The next chunk goes from Bologna to Bolzano and takes us up into the Italian mountains!!!! With bookings done through booking.com we are now set for the next few days.
Unfortunately there was no accommodation available for the half way stage from Florence to Bologna so we are catching the train! Seems that there is limited towns and accommodation in the mountains that divide Florence from Bologna and it makes it more difficult being a weekend.
No matter…. It was then off to the train station to book our tickets. The staff at the station were most helpful and we managed to get tickets. Only issue is that due to track work we are on 2 trains to Bologna which go via Faenza.
After this it was off to the bike shop to get a replacement for my rear Garmin radar light and for the others to purchase riding gloves (Chris) and a cap to block sun from the neck ( Steve) the bike shop was very helpful and I would recommend them. The name of the shop is Florence by Bike.
After this it was off to do the laundry and then do a bit more exploring of Florence. Steve and I walked to the Piazza Michelangelo which overlooks the city. This was a pleasant walk of about 3 kms which included a 60 metre climb to the top. Along the way we could see preparations for the upcoming Tour de France which has the Grand Depart in Italy. The first stage of the Tour goes from Florence to Rimini. There seems to be a lot of Tour infrastructure which is ready for the this on June 29.
After the walk to the top of the Piazza we had lunch and a cool drink. By this stage the weather was very hot and very humid so finding some shade to have lunch was necessary.
After lunch we ventured back to the hostel and the coolness of our air conditioning….
Chris on the other hand had booked into a pizza cooking class which could be interesting.
Tonight we will be cleaning and doing a small service on our bikes as they are very dusty and dirty after the rides so far
I think we will do a cafe dinner tonight after the sun goes down to enjoy some cooler weather.
The pictures today are:
Our home in Florence… right near the street with all the leather vendors
A replica of David
The Duomo at night…. Last night on the walk
Ponte Vecchio at night along the Arno River
A couple of photos at the top of the Piazza Michelangelo
A couple of photographs of the Tour information on the route of stage 1
