Back on the bike after 5 days, riding to the West and South.

After 5 days off the bike, I was back on it today, and it sure felt great.  I really enjoyed a super trip to Venice with Emily to celebrate my 60th birthday.  The birthday was a month ago, but I was pretty busy with tours, thankfully, so we waited until things slowed down for the trip.  For the first time, we used a service called airbnb, which we rented an apartment through, and it was great.  A pretty nice apartment, with an excellent location - quiet, picturesque, and close enough to the tourist craziness to join in when we wanted.  We had a 3 day pass on the Vaporetto service, which worked well and was fun.  The interior architecture in the new exhibition space in the Dogana was a highlight for me.  Although the forecast was for at least 2 days of rain out of our 4 days there, we did not really have any rain.  It started as we made our way to the train station.

Yesterday, the weather really was saying not to ride, and I took my first real walk for a workout of the year, which was pretty fun, but I really love riding.  Today, everything cooperated, with the exception of wind, and you just have to deal with that if you want to get out.  I do the Viola school pick up today, so I had to be home at a certain time, and also thought a 3 to 4 hour ride would be appropriate after a number of days off.  I have really enjoyed the route from Signa to Pinone lately, and rode it today.  It is just a very nice climb, mostly gentle, although the last 3 kilometers average 7 to 8%, most of it is pretty user friendly.  I don't ride it that often, so it is also nice to do that.  I took the nice descent into Limite today, which is really fun.  I took it quite slow, as there were occasional, around 1/3 of the time, heavy wind gusts which just moved you around on the road.

From Limite, I rode through Montelupo to Ginestra, then climbed to Malmantine and cut over through Marliano, Vigliano, Roveta and Santa Maria a Marciaola to the descent into Scandicci.  Again, the descent was a little slow, as the wind was doing it's thing.  Still fun.  After getting into Scandicci, it is just a power crank back to the barn.  Sweet.  47.8 miles in 3:24 rolling time for an average speed of 14 mph with 3278 vertical feet climbed at an average temperature of 62.

Signa, Carmignano, Pinone, Limite, Ginestra, Marliano, Scandicci, Firenze by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

The view back to the North, toward Prato, on the gentle climb from 

Comeana to Carmignano.

Looking toward Pinone, the top of the climb from above Comeana.

I liked the view through this olive orchard just below Carmignano.