3 days of fun riding in Tuscany.

It's been a few days and I have put in 3 rides, all fun.  On Monday, I caught up with many things, and found an hour or two to get out.  I felt great once on the bike which surprised me as Sunday's ride was pretty hard.  The Monday ride had me noticing my surroundings as if they were new to me and just being delighted with the ride and the opportunity to ride here.  Kind of a perfect ride.

Yesterday, I did a Florence by Bike Chianti tour all day to Villa le Corti and back, of course with a loop tour.  Two nice folks who were an interesting couple.  Steve, from New Zealand was around 6'3" and his wife, Small Eyes (which is a nickname but the only name they gave me) was around 4'10".  They were pretty strong, which is good, as the tour to Villa le Corti is almost twice as long as the regular FBB Chianti tour.  We had a nice day, and Villa le Corti is doing a great job with the wine tour, tasting, and "light" lunch.

Good day today, with more catch up, then I took my Eroica bike into the shop to check in with Andrea Martini, the mechanic, who is totally into the older bikes.  I got a 1974 Bianchi from Kate's boss, and had spent a number of hours doing work on it myself.  I was not getting very far, and I knew this was pretty much Andrea's thing, so I took it into him to see what it would take to get it "Eroica ready".  He was all over it, and it was a fun time as during the 1/2 to 1 hour he looked at it and prepared an estimate, 4 or 5 other guys were in and out of the mechanic's space and all talking old bikes, and the Eroica.  My Italian is definitely challenged, and Andrea's English is worse than my Italian, so it was interesting and fun.  He said he would have it ready to go in a couple of weeks and it would cost around 280 euros which was below my top price.  If it cost too much to get ready, I could simply by a bike already set up.  Anyway, super fun time at the shop.

I replaced the chain on my regular bike, then was pretty much complete with what I needed to do, so I got out for a nice 2 hour ride, out the main road to Le Falle, then up through Monteloro and back home through Fiesole and Pian de Mugnone.  It is starting to get hot, and the high while I was riding today was around 88 F.  Need to stay on top of the water situation.  Another good day.  Ciao a tutti.

Steve and "Small Eyes", a nice couple on a long Florence

by Bike Chianti tour.  

I love this view and take pictures of it often.  The view to the

east from above the Monastery below Monteloro.

The road just above the monastery on the way to Monteloro.