Montefanna on a rainy day.

A couple days off the bike.  Wednesday, it was simply rainy and I needed a real rest day anyway.  Thursday, Emily and I spent the day traveling to and from Bologna seeing the Vermeer show there.  It was a fun day.  The show was great - very different styles and types of paintings than what we normally see here from the Italian renaissance.  We had a great lunch, as Bologna is know for the food. We also spent around 5 hours wandering around the old part of the city, seeing a couple of churches, and climbing a 100 meter high tower.

I awoke this morning to relatively hard rain, and went back to bed.  On my second try, I got up and the rain had turned to only showers.  I did all my normal morning routine stuff, and by the time I was finishing, it appeared to be clearing, at least for a little while.  I decided to suit up and give it a try.  I took the Gore-tex shell and pants, prepared for some real rain.  Well, I had around 20 minutes of riding without any rain, then for most of the remainder of the ride it was somewhere between what I would call showers and light rain.  I was dressed pretty well for the weather and did not even get the rain pants out.  It actually was pretty pleasant riding with almost no one out and the temperatures were good for climbing, which is what the ride gave me today.

I rode out through Le Cure then up to San Domenico on a back road I like, then up the main road toward Fiesole, turning off to descend through Maiano to the base of the Vincigliata climb.  It started to rain on the climb, and around 2/3 the way up I gave up and put on the gore-tex shell.  The rain slowed up.  It seems amazing that the act of putting on a coat can change the weather, but it often does.  I finished the climb and enjoyed the extra layer for the little descent to the road to Olmo from Fiesole.  I turned off that road immediately and did the Montefanna climb for the second time in a couple of weeks.  I have decided this is an excellent training climb as it is close in and is around 10 to 12% average grade with a maximum grade around 20% for 300 vertical meters or so.  It works me a little.

You crest Montefanna, then descend to hook up with the Monteloro road and take it back to the Fiesole / Olmo road close to the top.  I turned to take Via Faentina back into Firenze through Caldine and Pian de Mugnone, and really nice descent.  With the wet roads I definitely took it easy on the way down, but it was super fun anyway.  I really enjoyed the ride even with around 2/3 of it in precipitation.  21.7 miles in 1:53 rolling time for an average speed of 11.6 mph with 2733 vertical feet climbed at an average temperature of 47.  Great to get out!

San Domenico, Vincigliata, Montefana in rain showers by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

A grey day looking through the trees on the Vincigliata climb.

Even wet, in rain showers, I think this road to Vincigliata is

beautiful and a wonderful ride.

Low lying clouds ahead after joining the road toward Olmo

above Monteloro from the Montefanna climb.

Looking over toward Santa Brigida, the hills / mountains are 

in the clouds.  I had just descended from being in the clouds

at the summit of Montefanna.