3 climbs, 3 descents on a beautiful fall afternoon

I had Italian class this morning, and it seems to be going well.  Their method obviously is based on not speaking any other language than Italian, and although at times it seems awkward, it seems to work for me.  We are reviewing reflexive verbs and pronouns, which I did last year with another school, but today feels like it cemented it in my mind.  After returning home, I did a few necessary errands.  I waited in line at the post office to pay a bill that does not want to work on line.  The post office is where you pay your common bills here, like utilities.  I picked up a new jersey for the fall from the team at the incredible price of 20 euros.  I spoke with the president of the team, and he said the cost is 33, but the sponsor shop pays some and our membership fees brings it down to 20.  Sweet.  I picked up a weeks worth of vino at the vino sfuso shop, and picked up a few needed groceries.  That left me leaving around 1:45 for my ride, and I had a plan that worked time wise.  It is getting dark here around 5 and I am shooting for being home by 4:30 to be safe.

I rode out my new normal route to San Domenico, then up the Fiesole road to turn toward Maiano, then down to the Church at San Martino.  Here it goes up pretty steeply through Vincigliata to the road that I turned right on to descend into Compiobbi.  This is a sweet, but steep and very swithback filled road, and I have to keep telling myself to pay attention and not let it go too fast.  From Compiobbi, I ride up the real main road to Le Falle, where you turn left and do the climb through Monteloro to the Fiesole / Olmo road, where I turned left and descended through Fiesole and turned off on a new route at San Domenico.  I had seen the road on a couple of maps and wanted to try it.  I think at one point there were two options, and I choose left, which was the less travelled road.  It was sweet, but at the bottom it was pretty steep.  The other road came in just below on the way to Piazza Della Cure.  I will have to try that later, and both seem to be good climbing options as well.  From Piazza Della Cure, it is a quick push home, and I was done.  Last night was super late for me, as we went to the late show of the new James Bond movie and I was not in bed until almost 2.  Anyway, I was home, but tired and a nap awaited.  The summary is 26 miles with an incredible 4150 vertical feet of climbing, in 2 hours 21 minutes of rolling time, giving an average speed of 11.2 mph.  Check the link for more information.

As a note, I have decided to include more personal information in the blog, as different sources have suggested this as a good way to go.  It appears I have a number of readers now, so maybe it is working.  If it is not welcome, please comment and I can go back to my description of rides only.  Ciao.

3 climbs, 3 descents on a beautiful fall afternoon by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

What a perfect afternoon for a climb on a road bike in a wonderful setting.  

Monteloro is only 8 kilometers away.  

A couple of kilometers past Monteloro, there are many vineyards and villas.  Perfect.