A nice day riding the Chianti hills with Nate and Tina

Today was my first day out with Nate and Tina, who will be riding with me for 5 days.  We took my usual Chianti hills route and had a wonderful day.  They are both strong athletes and good cyclists.  We started by taking the viales to Piazzale Michaelangelo, then up to Poggio Imperiale.  Over and down to Galluzzo, then over to Cinque Vie.  This was plenty of time to make sure the bikes were fine, they were comfortable, and everything was good.  We climbed up through Vacciano to San Gersole, and they were quite happy with the route and the scenery.  It is a beautiful ride.  From Vacciano, up through Mezzomonte to Monteoriolo, then over to Impruneta for a cafe and pastry.  Nice spot and really a perfect weather day.  My arm warmers were already off, and the knee warmers came off here as well. Down toward Falciani, then up through Luiano to the San Casciano road.  They wanted to continue, and I encouraged them, so we headed down then up to Montefiridolfi.  I love the little town square there and we hung out a little, enjoyed the ambiance, and refilled water bottles.  Over to Bibbiano, then down to the valley floor.  From there, one more climb to San Casciano, which everyone did well on.  We stopped at a great spot for gelato in San Casciano, and I introduced Nate and Tina to Tuscan gelato, que buonissimo!  Just a short ride down the ridge through Chiesa Nuova, then the descent to Scandicci brought us back to the Arno river valley.  A crank through Scandicci to Firenze, and we were home.  Great ride, great day, perfect weather.  Hopefully more of all tomorrow. Check out Chianti hills - day 1 with Nate and Tina on Strava.com! It's a 70.8 km ride I did on Tuesday, May 6, 2014. The obligitory stop at Piazzale Michaelangelo.  Still one of the best photo spots in town. Climbing to Impruneta, our first stop. Nate and Tina climbing toward Luiano on a perfect day. Happy clients in the valley below Montefiridolfi, one of my  favorite spots for a photo.