Nice late afternoon ride - reversed direction from the usual.

I had errands this morning and the weather was saying don't get out anyway.  So, the rain stopped around 2, but I had to pick up Viola at school to take her home, which meant leaving around 3:45.  Anyway, I checked the sunset time, which was around 8, and decided to let the roads dry up, and not have to hurry either my bike ride or the Viola pick up.  Good decision, Mark.

I took off around 6, and did one of my standard short rides, only in reverse.  I went out Via Faentina, through Piazza della Cure, then back over to Via Faentina and climbed to Pian de Mugnone.  I turned off here to climb to Fiesole, then from Fiesole climbed through town to above the town where you can branch off toward either Compiobbi, Settingnano, or Vincigliata.  I took the Vincigliata road and thoroughly enjoyed the descent.  Super curvy road, tiny, and pretty good surface all make for a great descent.  This has become one of my favorite climbs lately, and it was very fun to reverse the ride.  It is really quite different to ride roads a different direction.

At the base of the Vincigliata descent, I climbed over past the chiesa de San Martino, through Maiano, and hooked up with the Fiesole road.  I descended to San Domenico, and took option #2 for the descent to della Cure, then over the bridge and home.  Really quite fun.  The summary is:  14.2 miles in 1:15 rolling time for an average speed of 11.4 mph with 1630 vertical feet of climbing at an average temperature of 55.

Late afternoon ride after the rain stopped. by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

For a pretty cloudy afternoon, I ended up taking a few photos.

The first three are from the climb from Pian de Mugnone to Fiesole.

Below is a villa with a beautiful tower on the way to the 

Vincigliata road from above Fiesole.

Looking down toward Florence from the same road

on the way to the Vincigliata descent.