June 12, 2023
Bottai to Castra
I thought James was being overly optimistic when he left the campground today and followed the same downhill route that we took to Florence yesterday. We quickly backtracked and then started immediately and very steeply climbing. Besides being stinking hot and having no shade at all, the route today was awesome and exactly what I envisioned riding on Tuscany to be like. Big villas in every shade of yellow and orange, grape vines, olive groves and tall skinny conifer trees. Also hills.
We climbed steadily on a very narrow road with very little traffic until we joined the via Volterra a for a short while. We ventured down into Chiesanuova to find coffee. I used the bathroom at the bar but didn't understand any of the signs and instead of pulling the toilet flusher I pulled the "come help me" cord and set an alarm off in the whole bar. We left the main road again and climbed another 2km on a narrow, but mostly nicely paved backroad before an awesome descent through small towns and with stunning views out over the valley.
We stopped for lunch in Cerbaia and picked up some veggies for dinner too. We got there just in time because as we were eating all the shutters closed. We have to remember that shops close between 1 and 3 here or we will get hungry. From Cerbaia we had a flat, almost downhill, 10km in a busier road which was perfect for maintaining a sleeping child. Just after the pretty town of Montelupo Fiorentino we turned off and up our final climb for the day. This climb actually featured in the 2019 Giro de Italia. I had Carlton Kirby's voice commentating for most of our climb. He usually finds things pretty exciting, but I think even he might have struggled to find enough to talk about with our pace.
It was a beautiful climb though, and a good, steady 8-10% gradient for about 5km. Every time we turned a corner the vista kept opening up below us. Tobias woke about halfway up but was happy enough in the trailer and probably cooler there in the shade too. It was very hot and the mild headwind we'd had for most of the afternoon disappeared. Less than 1km from the top there was a store and I was feeling pretty cooked so we stopped for an ice-cream and a litre of peach juice with some ice from the friendly bartender.
The juice helped my energy, but my legs had turned to lead as we ground out the last part of the climb. At the top we looked back and laughed at how close the place we stopped for an ice-cream was. It was just a short descent to our campground for tonight. The host showed us to our site and helped me push my bike up the steep slopes to our terrace. I don't think there is anyone else in a tent here tonight, but it's a nice quiet campground and we have a really private pitch. There is also a slide, a small house, and a mower, so Tobias is more than satisfied. There is also an abundance of giant mosquitoes so I'm going to escape to the tent soon. The only exposed skin I have is my forehead but I just got bitten there.
Tomorrow we start with a big downhill then have a relatively flat day until a short climb to another campsite. There are thunderstorms forecast for the morning though so we might be getting a bit wet. Tomorrow is also looking very dodgy so we will stay at least 2 nights in Montecatini Terme to wait that out. We have time because we only really have 4 riding days left before our ferry to Bastia next Monday.
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Today's ride: 32 km (20 miles)
Total: 1,506 km (935 miles)
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