Signa, Pinone, Limite, Cerbia, Chiesa Nuova, and Scandicci on another great fall day.

I was planning on perhaps a day off, but changed my mind to what passes for an easy ride these days, and did a favorite.  I thought I had ridden it recently, and checked the garmin site to see how long it took me.  Well, it had been over 6 weeks, so not so recent.  That is a good example of how much variety of riding is here, a favorite gets hit only every 6 weeks or so, and if you follow the blog, you know I ride most every day.  I booked a Florence by Bike Chianti tour tomorrow, so it was a good thing to do a reasonable ride today.

I set out through the Cascine then the back way to Signa, hooking up with the road to Comeana.  From there, you climb to Carmignano then continue climbing, although it does get steeper after Carmignano, to Pinone.  A nice stop for water, cafe, a pastry, then it's back on the bike for the descent to Limite.  Just an awesome descent, and with a strange sound on the front brake (repaired) I even stopped on the way down.  From Limite, it is mostly flat to Montelupo, then a little uphill to Cerbia on really nice roads.  From Cerbia to Chiesa Nuova is the last climb with a couple of delays today, but good news for the future.  There is already around 3 k of new pavement and they are working on much of the remainder.  That will be really nice to have this well used piece of road with new floor.  Sweet.  I took a different route down to Scandicci, which was fun, then powered back to the apartment.  Here is the garmin link for the ride.

Signa, Carmignano, Pinone, Castra, Montelupo, Cerbia, Firenze by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

A relatively gentle but nice climb from Carmignano to Pinone.

What great roads.

Such a beautiful road, even when it kicks up on the way to Pinone.

Another favorite spot for a cafe and pastry, the bar / cafe at the 

top of the Pinone climb.  Always good espresso and dolce.

I had a strange sound when applying my front break, which was 

a piece of leaf, so I stopped to fix, giving me a rare opportunity

to take a picture of some of the endless switchbacks on 

the descent from Pinone to Limite through Castra.