Just Pokin' Around ??km

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Having stayed up late and gotten up early I was so tired I actually had a cappuccino at breakfast this morning! In spite of that we had a late start, and not just because I wasn't feeling frisky - Bob is leaving tomorrow and needed to arrange a lift to the train station (we will indeed be leaving from Vignale-Riotorto station, a mere 6 minutes away according to Google maps) and to determine which train to get his ticket for, so we waited until we found Chiara (who speaks excellent English) to discuss the matter; I rode shotgun on the conversation because I will need the same service on Saturday (although my ticket is already purchased). Despite being told that the train station was closed we decided to go see if there was a ticket vending machine there that Bob could use, so at long last we finally got to make a turn to the right once we got to the end of the driveway.

The road in that direction was in better shape than we had been used to, and it wasn't long before we confirmed that indeed there was no place to purchase a ticket (not a big deal since they are easily obtained online, and the hotel had offered to print Bob's if he didn't want to trust being able to display it on his iPad), but Riotorto itself (which lies on the other side of the highway from the station) proved to be a gem of a small town. Because the coop was right there in front of me, I stopped in and picked up two bottles of wine that I immediately rode back to the hotel with, leaving Bob to explore the area further.

Once back at Salvapiano, however, I consulted my big map and then confirmed with Barbara that the road through Riotorto doesn't actually connect to any others but simply leads to the forested hills, which are a great location for mountain biking, and which I had hoped to explore. Instead, once again I pedalled across the fields and out the back of the hotel, this time just picking roads at random and enjoying the day, planning to eventually wend my way back to Baratti and Populonia, where I intended to get to Piombino by the back road that I thought Marta had suggested yesterday.

At one point I hit a dead end, and not wanting to repeat yesterday's trajectory, selected a road leading away from the coast. It ended up taking me all the way back to SP39, intersecting it just outside Venturina. I entered town only briefly before veering off towards the sea again, but my progress in that direction was impeded slightly when I found myself stuck on the wrong side of the tracks with no way to get across. On the bright side, though, I did thus manage to get a sense of where we had been picked up last Saturday (Campiglia Marittima station is actually in Venturina).

I was enjoying riding unknown roads that headed in the general direction I needed - it was easy to navigate with the sea and smokestacks on one side and the massif which underpins Campiglia Marittima on the other - when I came to an intersection and saw a sign for Park Albatros, so I decided to alter course. The indicated road actually took me around the back end of the park before depositing me on the edge of San Vincenzo. I had overshot things a tiny bit, but it didn't take long to return to Baratti, where I paused to eat my lunch in the shade by the sea. Once done, I started up the climb towards Populonia again, this time knowing what was ahead of me.

I had a pretty good idea where I thought I would find the back way to Populonia, but the best I could come up with there was a parking lot. At the top I even tried a dirt road, which soon petered out into a trail that then simply ended abruptly - if there really is another road to Piombino from Populonia (which I now doubt, although there could be a trail) I sure couldn't find it, so once again I headed back towards Fiorentina, vowing to make it to Piombino this time no matter what. But today traffic on the way in wasn't anywhere close to what it had been like yesterday; traffic going the other way was quite heavy, though - presumably because the ferry had recently arrived. I took advantage of the lull and headed directly into own, not because there was anything I particularly wanted to see but more to be able to say I had been there. With another ferry steaming towards port I didn't linger.

On the way back to the hotel, though, I took the time to go down the road I had spied through the fence yesterday, in order to check out the old Enel power plant. Signs there indicated a European Robotics League competition was apparently under way - it seems when Enel decommissions power plants it has a policy of "giving these buildings a new place at the centre of the communities they have always served" . Neat.

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Photos

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We finally get to see Riotorto

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My view at lunch

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Elba and the ferry heading to it

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Just to show I finally made it to Piombino

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Me and Bob and Chiara with the wine she gave us