Riding with Cosimo, custom cycling tours in Tuscany: A few crazy days and a couple of rides.

A few crazy days in a row for me. Wednesday, a friend here got married in the morning in a civil ceremony in the Palazzo Vecchio. Beautiful room and fun to be a part of the couple's happiness. Immediately afterward, we got ourselves home, then Kate picked us up to go up to Villa La Pietra, where NYU has their program in Firenze. Kate put together an easter egg hunt for the third year in a row to benefit a great organization, Friends of Florence, which funds art restoration. The Villa is an awesome place and it was super for the event. A couple of pictures are included below which show what it was like. After the event, we helped Kate clean up, then took a bus back down into town, for the party for the morning wedding. It was at a place called the Oblate, and was really quite nice, but quite simple. Fun day.

Then the bad part. We returned home and I started to get something to eat and Emily said, "someone was in the apartment while we were gone". It turns out we were robbed of mostly jewelry of Emily's and some watches. We only brought things over that had sentimental value, so aside from the monetary loss, we felt pretty bad about loosing old family pieces. I had a pocket watch from my great, great grandfather, which was over 150 years old, and was the only thing of mine they took. Emily had a solid gold Rolex of her mother's, along with another Rolex of her own taken. The worst for Emily were her mother's old charm bracelet and Emily's charm bracelet from her childhood. It actually did hurt, even though we both know they are only things, and we are fine, and basically, they were not things we even used. Police here until past midnight, but no useable fingerprints, and many discussions with a neighbor downstairs who was also robbed during the day. It made us feel sad.

Yesterday, I did a long ride with a few friends from the team, previewing the mediofondo course for the upcoming Granfondo Firenze. Great ride, and we all pushed pretty hard, which was fun. Today, my first meet and greet of the year to Impruneta and back. Add in a number of calls from the shop to see if I could do other tours in the process of being put together and you get the idea. At least for me, at this stage of my life it passes for pretty busy and crazy. Around 150 k for the two rides, but I don't have all the other stats handy. Out for dinner tonight with friends visiting from the US, two hours of babysitting yesterday after my ride, La Traviata Opera last night, and I guess it really is a little nuts. Got to enjoy things as they happen and be present. Ciao.

Here are a couple of views of the Easter Egg hunt. What a location

and event. Simply stunning.