Another cold morning, at least for here, a little below 30 last night and around 38 when I started my ride.  It started out sunny, which is nice, but some light overcast increased to become mostly grey by the end of the ride.  I decided to do some up and down riding on roads that I like, but don't ride all that often.  Most of the time I do the up and down thing, I do the roads closest to the apartment.  Today, I rode over to Galluzzo by way of Poggio Imperiale and the Viale up to Poggio Imperiale.  It is a nice, beautiful way to get warm with around 200 vertical of climbing in around 5k.  From Galluzzo, I got on the Cinque Vie road and turned off at Cinque Vie to catch the start of the climb to San Gersole at Grassina.  It is a fun climb as a couple of the pictures show.

Before reaching San Gersole, I turned left and descended into the outskirts of Grassina, then took a very small road back up above San Gersole to like with the Impruneta road just below Monteoriolo.  I rode toward Impruneta, but turned off on one of my favorites through Baruffi to just below Tavernuzze.  I took the main road there toward Greve, but turned off to climb through San Andrea in Percussina (the Maciavelli exile location) to the road from San Casciano to Chiesa Nuova.  I turned right there and enjoyed the cruise over to Chiesa Nuova, then continued on to the descent down the fun switchbacks to Galluzzo.  I decided to climb back up to Poggio Imperiale, then skirted across Pian de Guilari to catch the Viale and descended down the fun gentle curving road to Porta Romana.  From there, through the Centro back to the apartment.

Check the link for more information, but the summary is:  33.7 miles in 2:51 rolling time for an average speed of 11.8 mph, with 3330 vertical feet of climbing, with an average temperature of 41.  For the first time my feet and hands got a little cold, not bad enough to stop future rides at this temperature.  Ciao!

Ups and downs in the Impruneta vicinity. by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

I loved the color of the stone on this villa on the first climb toward San Gersole.

I liked this church tower on the first climb toward San Gersole,

in a very small town called Vacciano.

This tiny, fun road is on the way to Monteoriolo - the super back way.