Riding with Cosimo, custom cycling tours in Tuscany: Monteriggioni with Vayable clients, Kit and Laura.

I had an interesting day today, and a good tour with clients through Vayable, a guide service online. Kit and I had a little trouble communicating, and had to reschedule a couple of times, but we were both flexible and it worked out well in the end. I took the bus to Siena, with my bike, which was really pretty simple. The return trip was simple as well. Siena is a very confusing town, and I needed help finding the hotel outside the town, even with my google map. A very nice person helped, and I was pretty much on time showing up. We got everyone on their bikes, and set out to Monteriggioni, our destination.

We navigated through the outskirts of Siena, basically going about 1/2 way around the town to be on SR2, and we stayed on it for a while, even with a fair amount of traffic. We turned off to take the road to Badese, and the traffic stopped. In Badese, we accessed a smaller road and it was as beautiful as I wanted it to be. We rode that road back to SR2, then up to Monteriggioni. It is a beautiful little walled medieval town, and we enjoyed a cafe and a bite to eat, before starting our return trip. We rode back on SR2 all the way to make it a little loop. I was feeling pretty good about navigating at this point, so we took a branch on the way into Siena, that I thought would take us more directly to the hotel. Well, I was really wrong. Siena is a hill town, but many branches of the town and the old centro are separated by ravines, which all look very similar when riding. I eventually realized we were not where we wanted to be, and asked directions.

We started up to where the bus driver suggested, then I asked for more directions. Eventually, a super kind woman who spoke a little English, but basically understood my Italian, led us the way back to the right road on her scooter, stopping when the girls fell behind. Wow, just really nice to help in that way. We were back on the right road, and it did really look like the other wrong road we had been on. Well, live and learn. I got them back to their hotel in time to get ready for the wedding they were here to attend, then I was back up to the centro to catch the bus home. Good day, but long, and I am tired now.

Day with Kit and Laura - Siena, Monteriggioni, and return. by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

Kit and Laura at the garden at the hotel, right before we left.