Hill climbing on a rainy day

It was pouring around 8 this morning, and I was thinking it would be a day for errands and a day off the bike.  Well, I finished the errands, the sun came out, and motivation hit me in the face, so I took off for a ride.  The roads were getting dry in town as well.  I started off on Via Faentina and rode up to Pian de Mugnone then climbed to Fiesole.  By Pian de Mugnone, it was raining pretty good, so the coat came out and was on for the climb to Fiesole.  The skies looked pretty dark, but you can easily be fooled with an incomplete sky view.  The rain stopped just as I got to Fiesole, so I took the coat off, as my plan was to climb Montefanna, a steep and difficult climb.

I headed up through Fiesole to the Montefanna turn off, and the skies looked pretty dark ahead.  I was thinking that if it really opened up I could simply turn around.  I switched the garmin read out to give me percentage grade and it entertained me to watch it as I climbed.  It hit 20% a few times, and stayed above 10% the whole climb, so it is pretty hard.  By the time I was at the top, the skies looked better, but it started sprinkling and the coat came back out.  I descended to the Monteloro road, then down through Monteloro to the main road at Le Falle.  I used to descend this road when I visited, but since living here, I have used it primarily as a climb.  The descent is pretty nice.

It also got me very close to the second hard climb of the day, turning off at Compiobbi to climb to Montebeni.  This is not as steep as Montefanna, but more vertical, and it stayed pretty steady at 12%, so definitely not a gimme, at least for this old man.  I felt good at the top, and continued climbing to the road to Vincigliata, and descended through Vincigliata to just below Settignano, then rode back to the apartment via Le Cure.  Glad I got out, it made me feel great.

Rainy hill climbing - Montefanna, Compiobbi by ridingwithcosimo at Garmin Connect - Details

Climbing Montefanna it really looked like fall. This is where

the climb gets pretty steep at 20+%.

A vineyard on the descent from Montefanna to Monteloro.

The vines changing are pretty even in the clouds.