Florence ... the city of bike parts

---

We woke again today to more rain (it's rained everyday since we've arrived in Italy, but generally only a brief shower). Thankfully it's been warm, not cold rain.

Siena still wasn't tugging our heart strings, so we set off towards Florence. Once out of the busy outskirts of Siena, we enjoyed a lovely ride through vineyards and olive trees up hill and back down again. We caught up to a lovely old dutch cyclist near the top of the first decent hill for the day, and after chatting to him for five minutes we left him to enjoy the ride to Florence at his own pace.

We stopped at the next town for a bite to eat and he went hurtling past, so we caught him up at the top of the next hill, only to be passed again when we stopped at the next town - it was a true tortoise and hare race, and true to form the tortoise won. When we rolled into the hostel several hours later, he was already nicely settled into his bungalow. Oh well.

Yet again, it was a battle finding our way into the centre of Florence. The signs into town lead us straight to a Freeway (no cyclists allowed) and so we poured over maps, and with the help of a few helpful locals battled our way until we found the river, were able to relocate ourselves and press on to the Youth Hostel. One stupid bike path we were forced onto had these slippery steps which lead down and under a railway line and then back up again. Christie's bike is very badly weighted to the back and I thought I was going to lose her at one point when she almost slipped down.

As we cycled into the centre, you couldn't help but notice the number of bike skeletons chained to railings and posts. It was like a walking into a torture chamber for bicilettas, with most bikes having wheels bent in half where people had tried to snap the wheel and steal the bike or all that remained was the frame with all other parts picked clean by scavengers. We also noticed that people in Florence carry very hefty bike locks. Ours just didn't look up to the job.

We (therefore) left our bikes at the hostel and caught the bus into town. After the quiet, uncrowded roads of Tuscany and the beautiful little villages, castles and churches, Florence felt a bit of a tourist trap (maybe we could chain some of the tourists up to rails next to the bikes and see if someone steals them, or would that be wrong?). The Duormo in town was magnificent, simply breathtaking, especially the frescos on the ceiling, but after an hour or two wandering around, I just wanted something to eat - ANYTHING to eat as I hadn't had lunch, and so I was paying more attention to the pizzerias than the tourist sites and Christie was just tired and ready for bed.

Pizza solved my problem, and we jumped the bus back to the hostel for an early night, only stopping when we saw a bike shop on the way home. After goign through three tyres, Christie now has a spare and I've got some chain oil to fix that squek from all this rain.

We've decided we really don't like the big cities so much, os have cancelled our rest day in Florence and intend to head onwards ...

----
Today's Ride: 69.6km, Total Distance: 198.0km, Today's ride time 3,59"

---