Sunday, very chilly ride up Montesenrio.

The weather eased up yesterday, and Emily, Ben, and I spent the morning walking through the Cascine, the biggest park by far in Florence.  I think it is around 4 kilometers long and around 600 meters wide.  After we returned, I got ready to ride, but with the time what it was, I changed my route and decided to climb Montesenario.  It was chilly, but in the sun, it felt pretty warm and good.  The chill was quite nice for the climb, but as I approached the summit, the temperatures had dropped significantly.  I had decided to wear my middle weight gloves, and would have been much better off wearing the warmest ones.  To say the least, it was a little cold on the way down.  Still fun to get out, and I always feel good when I am done.  A huge dinner at Kate and Nicco's and time with the kids completed a very nice day.

Friday we had a nice day in Lucca, and I got a wonderful gift of a 1974 

bianchi racing bike from Kate and her employer Massimo.  Massimo 

has owned this since it was new, and thinks he has the "racing" bars 

and toe clip / straps that came with it.  I was super surprised that everything 

was functional.  After I got it home, the tires are even holding 100 psi.

Now, I need to be lucky in the lottery to get a spot in the Eroica.

The first real snow I have seen this year on the steps to the church at

Montesenario.  Snow started appearing on the side of the road about 

400 vertical meters above Florence.  Montesenario is around 850

vertical meters above town.

Looking north at Montesenario.  More people up there than I have

ever seen before.  A fair amount of snow on the north facing side.