Great ride with Nicola and Adam in the Chianti hills.

Yesterday afternoon, Nicola, a woman from Revelstoke who has been riding with the team for a month or two, sent me a message to see if I wanted to ride with her and her boyfriend, Adam today.  I thought, sounds good.  Nicola is a strong athlete, a good climber, and I assumed that Adam would be as well.  He certainly was, and we had a fun day out.  Nicola had a general route in mind, but doesn't really know the roads or ways in and out of the city yet, so I helped with all that and basically guided the day.  We have been talking about doing some guided days in the spring when Adam and her brother will return for more riding, so chalk it up to a promotional day.  They were fun to ride with and I am not planning on charging whenever I ride with others and show them the way.

Last night, Emily and I attended the annual holiday dinner for an organization called Friends of Florence, which raises money for art restoration projects.  It was in an incredible 15th century palazzo, in a frescoed room, with a beautiful table set for around 65.  Wow is all I can say.  Crystal chandeliers, crystal elaborate candle fixtures on the table and I was seated between two beautiful young ladies who were very interesting and for some reason seemed to want to talk with me.  They both knew Kate and one of them knew Emily, so perhaps they were taking pity on me.  Either way, it was fun and nice.  Before the dinner when cocktails were being served, it seemed like every time my drink ran low, it was magically replaced.  Well, I don't really drink a lot, and this put me on course for drinking a little too much for the night.

Surprisingly, I felt great riding and with good company, pushed the pace reasonably most of the day.  Thanks for a great ride, Nicola and Adam.  Today's ride was 89.1 kilometers (54.5 miles) in 3:58 for an average speed of 22.3 kph (13.8 mph) with 1413 meters (4636 feet) climbed.  This brings me to 19,311 kilometers for the year leaving a very doable 689 kilometers to make my 20,000 kilometer goal.  Ciao.

The dinner table as people we coming in to find their places at the

Friends of Florence annual holiday dinner.  What an amazing room 

and place for such a wonderful, elegant, and deserving event.

Nicola and Adam in the town square in Greve after our first cafe 

and pastry of the day.

Across from the famous butcher in Panzano, there is this new

sculpture of a cow with flowers and sky painted on it.  Interesting.

The old church in Panzano, which I almost never get to, as it is not on the 

way to another place.  We rode up here today to access the Testalepre road,

and it is a beautiful old stone building.  Che bella!