Craig's blog

Today is the last real day of our vacation and the last day of biking.  There was just a short 12 km out and back ride although it was all downhill to the town and all uphill back (800 ft).  We stayed in the town for about 15 minutes and then rode back up.  I followed Maddie who has been the fastest climber of the kids throughout the week.  I hadn’t had the opportunity to ride with her.  She took off up the hill and at first I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stay with her, but she slowed somewhat into a more reasonable pace.  Still, she rode impressively up the hill back to our hotel.

When we got back to our room (9:30) we packed our bags, said goodbye to our guides (Julie, Lica and Marika) and boarded a bus for Florence.

The bus ride was about an hour long on country roads.  We arrived at the train station in Florence – where our high-speed training was scheduled to leave at 2:40.  We (the 5 of us, Doug and Maddie, and Diane and Jim) all went to the Klein’s hotel which was a couple of blocks away where we stored our luggage and then went up to the top to the garden restaurant with a commanding view of Florence.  We had a great farewell lunch and then said goodbye to Maddie and Doug.  They travel home from Florence on Sunday.

The Carlsons and Cowards then walked back to the train station and boarded our train.  It was great – comfortable and quiet and rode along at 155 mph.  We were in Rome in less than 90 minutes.  When we got to Rome we said goodbye to Diane and Jim who are staying near the Rome train station before flying to Greece early tomorrow morning.

Next we bought tickets on the express train to the Rome airport which is on another modern, high-speed train.  We waited 30 minutes and then rode 30 minutes to the airport (which is outside of Rome).  We then ran for the shuttle that goes to our hotel which is about 5 minutes from the airport and just caught it before it left.  We finally arrived at the hotel around 6 pm.

It’s a very modern hotel (and it has decent wifi).  We ate dinner, made sure we were all packed – comparing the weight of each of our suitcases to try to keep them all under 50 pounds and are about to go to bed.  Because I have decent wifi finally, I’ve uploaded pictures of Rome to our photo site: photos.carlsonfun.com.  The rest will have to wait until we return because we’re getting up at 4:00 AM to head to the airport to start the very long trip back to SF.  We have a 6:55 flight to Frankfurt, a little less than two hour layover, and then a 12 hour flight back home.  We should land around 12:45 tomorrow. We can’t wait to get home and to see Teddy again.  We all really miss him.

Today was the day the weather report had continuously promised rain, but we awoke to blue skies.  We started with a ride to Coltibuono which was similar to yesterday’s ride before lunch, this time with 18 miles and 1,700 ft of climbing.  The girls all wanted to ride after lunch this time, so they all shuttled up the big hill.  Patty and I (and most others) rode up.  It was a beautiful climb through a green forest – much greener than what we’ve seen on previous days.  It reminded me more of our rides in the Santa Cruz mountains. 

When we got to the top we arrived at a medieval abbey that is now a bed and breakfast among other things.  There we got a tour of the place as well as olive oil and honey tasting, both of which were interesting.  While we were on this tour, our fantastic Backroads tour leaders were preparing a big picnic lunch for us.  It was basically a huge array of salad fixings, which of course was perfect for me. 

After lunch we headed off for the afternoon ride which was scheduled to stop in Castellina after 13 more miles of riding and another 1300 ft of climbing.  There was the promise of gelato in Castellina so our whole family headed off.  The girls were unhappy with the climbing (the ride went along a ridge, but there was a fair bit of uphill), but they persevered.  As we got closer to Castellina, the sky got very dark and it was clear it was going to rain.  The only question was whether we would arrive before getting dumped on.  We had a big descent into the town which Jessie and I did together.  We felt a couple of drops, but we basically made it unscathed.  Within 2-3 minutes of being there, the skies opened and it started pouring.  We all headed into the gelateria for cover (and for gelato) while our three guides packed all the bikes on the vans.  The poor ladies got totally soaked, but they have great attitudes and always had smiles on their faces.  Not everyone fit in the two shuttles, so Doug and I stayed behind and walked through the town (after it stopped pouring) while the others shuttled back to the hotel.  We were unbelievably lucky throughout the trip that the weather was so good as we just missed the rain a number of times, but especially today.

Tonight we had a farewell dinner in the hotel which was excellent.  We all really liked our guides and the other families along on the trip as well as spending time with Diane and Jim and Maddie and Doug.

Today we bussed to the Chianti region after breakfast and arrived around 10:30.  We started our ride at a castle (Castello di Brolio in Chianti) and quickly found that the terrain is pretty different in Chianti.  It is largely forested with oak, as opposed to few trees and lots of vineyards previously.  We road to the town of Radda in Chianti for lunch.  This was the toughest ride to lunch we’ve had with 1800 ft. of elevation gain in a 17 mile ride.  Kelli, Katie and Maddie all rode all the way, while Jessie got a “bump” up the final climb in the shuttle.  One of the other dads (Chris) and I ate quickly, because there was an option to do a mini-pass after the afternoon ride and we wanted to get it in.  We took off at 1:00 and rode the afternoon ride (13 miles, 1300 ft of elevation gain) back to the hotel.  We then set off on the bonus ride.  It was beautiful.  There are no big mountains in Tuscany, but no end of hills, and our ride took us up and down various hills and over one of the higher saddles in the hills.  It was more forested than we had seen previously, and we covered the 25 miles and 2,600 ft of elevation gain in 2 hours.  It was a great ride – but we were pretty tired at the end.  We enjoyed good weather all day.

Patty and the girls took more time in Radda and she bought Chianti Classico jerseys for the two of us there.  Patty rode back with Doug Klein and the girls shuttled back.

At 6:15, there was a wine tasting in our hotel (arranged for the Backroads adults) which was led by an Italian woman that was excellent at describing various aspects of the wines she presented (at least for neophytes like Patty and me).  Much of the discussion was around Chianti Classico which is obviously what the region is known for.  It wasn’t our favorite wine, but it was fun to learn about it.

After the wine tasting, the adults shuttled to a restaurant (Il Vescovino) in Panazano for dinner.  It was excellent (as was the case with most of the food we've eaten in Italy) and it was fun to sit with just the adults and get to know some of them better.

While we were wine tasting and eating dinner, the kids all went to a home where an older Italian couple taught them to make pizza  (using a real wood oven) and biscotti.  While the girls weren’t really looking forward to it, they all really enjoyed it.

It was a great day of hard riding and great eating.  J

We had our pre-ride briefing this morning at 8:30.  We had rolling hills and beautiful views all the way to lunch, which was 43 km.  I rode with Katie and Patty.  I stopped many times to take pictures as it was very picturesque.  Sunflowers, vineyards, hills, villas, nice clouds.   It also gave me the opportunity to ride pretty hard (in bursts) to catch up to Patty and Katie.  There was a shuttle option to lunch about 2/3 of the way, but Katie chose to ride on.  Jessie shuttled to lunch.  She said she had a nice ride to the shuttle point with Martha (11 years old) and her Dad, Chris and Auntie Diane.  Maddie and Kelli got to lunch first.  Maddie is on a mission to ride quickly!

We had lunch in the town of Castiglione del Lago.  The nine of us sat down in the restaurant right when it opened and ordered our lunch.  Our salads came quickly, but our main dishes didn’t come for about 45 minutes.  In the meantime all the other tables filled up and were served.  It was frustrating as it took all our time for visiting the town. It started raining as we finished and rained while we walked back to our bikes.

The kids loaded into the shuttle for an afternoon of sailing on the lake and the adults got back on the bikes for the final 26 km to the hotel.  Our ride was pleasant – it stopped raining within 5 minutes of our departure and we went at a leisurely pace.  The end included a decent climb to the town of Cortona where we are staying.

The place we’re staying is called Villa Baldelli.  It’s a medieval villa that in many ways seems original (and of course in other ways doesn’t).  Everything is made of stone and is very uneven.  The floor of our room sinks toward the middle a fair bit (maybe 10 inches).  It’s very cool.

Patty and I hung out by the pool after the ride.  The girls didn’t get back until 6:00 because their sailing adventure didn’t work out quite as planned.  They sailed out, but had to motor back because of high winds and it took a very long time.

We shuttled to the top of the town for dinner where we had another very slow, but good dinner and some gelato before shuttling back.  The town center was very interesting – built on a very steep hill, the roads are old cobblestones, narrow and very steep.  We got back around 10:00.

Tomorrow we take a bus to the Chianti region in the morning before starting our ride.

This morning breakfast was at 7:30 and we met at the bikes at 8:45 to get our briefing for the day.  We were off around 9:15 and it was already getting warm.  The morning ride was only 16 km, but included a 1,000 foot climb which is much more than any of our girls have ever done.  I got permission to go ahead as Patty was riding with Katie, Kelli was riding with Maddie, and Jessie was riding with Diane.  It felt great to be out and riding after so long without real exercise (other than a lot of walking).  It took less than an hour to reach the lunch spot.  Maddie and Kelli made it up quickly and easily.  Katie and Jessie chose to take the shuttle the last part of the climb and Patty had no problem (other than not really liking the heat). 

We explored the hilltop town of Montepulciano, climbed to the top of the tower at the top of the town to get a commanding view of the surrounding valleys and then went to a restaurant to have a big group lunch.

After lunch the kids were shuttled with Lica to do a high ropes course and they said they had a lot of fun.  The adults rode 25 km back to the hotel and then a few of us did a “bonus loop” that added another 19 km.  It was a great day of biking.  Patty started to melt a little on the return trip and Doug and I got rained on a little on the bonus loop, but all in all it was excellent.

When we got back we relaxed for a couple of hours before dinner which was an Italian BBQ.  Tonight our table selected a wine from Montepulciano in honor of today’s destination, and Patty particularly liked it.  Just as we were finishing it started raining with some serious wind, which got many of us wet (we were sitting in a covered, outdoor area).  We’ll get a good night’s sleep before we put the bags out tomorrow in preparation for changing hotels.  Hopefully we won’t get rained on during our ride tomorrow.

By the way, I still haven't been to a place with decent wifi, so I can't upload pictures.  Hopefully I'll find a place before we get home...