Solo ride wandering the Chianti hills.

A fun, but very late night last night.  We had a wonderful dinner with some friends here at their apartment.  All expats, but the hosts have been here for 25 years, so definite veterans.  We have known them peripherally for a bit, but are now starting to get to know them better.  Definitely nice, interesting, smart people and fun to be around.  I found out the male half of the couple, Jim, played football for Stanford with Jim Plunkett, which is cool.  He was a free safety, but looked too small to play the position to me, but perhaps that is due to my perspective of watching pro football now.  Mac, the male half of another couple at the dinner played basketball for SMU in the 60's, so I was surrounded by two guys who both were great athletes.  Because I am more active now, it was interesting that they both basically deferred to me athletically.  I have never even been close to competing at the level they both did however.  Anyway, I did not get to sleep until after 1:30, which is quite late for me, so I had no thoughts of getting up to do the team ride this morning.

It was cold this morning, around 28, so I had a big breakfast, and took my time getting ready, leaving around 11, and the temps had warmed up to around 40.  Still cold, but with the sun, it actually felt good.  Also, my ride in Chianti involved lots of ups and downs none of which were really long, so that worked for keeping my body temp pretty warm.  Also, I am getting better at dressing right for these temperatures.  Yesterday, I started out with way too much clothing, so today I took it a little lighter.  Basically a great ride in parts of Chianti that I really love.  Nice stop in San Polo for a cafe and sfolia con crema, which was my fuel for the ride.  Mostly sunny and a great ride.  51.2 km in 2:13 for an average of 23.0 kph with 775 meters climbed.  Forecast is for a week of sun with gradually warming temperatures with a high of around 60 by Thursday.  We shall see, but it would certainly make me happy.  Ciao a tutti!

The road to San Polo from Strada, a very gentle climb that I love.

I had a little break on the way up today and took this picture.

Usually, I am pushing the pace up here and almost never stop for a picture.

The stream on the way to San Polo from Strada was beautiful,

and definitely rolling.  Sometimes in summer it is little more than

a trickle.  Beautiful today.

Winter vines looking toward Grassina.

A shot of the vineyards between Capanuccia and Antella on a winter's day.