Sunday, July 06, 2014
Start of the Backroads biking trip
Today was the start of our bike trip. We got up in Arezzo in our apartment, made breakfast again, packed and
prepared to walk to the train station.
Just as we were getting ready to walk out the door, Patty fell down the
stairs, twisting her ankle. At first we
were worried it was pretty serious, but it turned out not to be, so we walked 1
mile down hill to the train station where we were meeting our Backroads tour
guides (and Diane and Jim and Maddie and Doug).
We were met by one of the guides, Julie, who is American, from San Diego. She got us together (3 other families, the
Cowards, Kleins, and us) and we boarded a bus for a 45 minute ride. The bus dropped us in the middle of a road
(literally) and we walked up to a cute villa where we had a traditional Italian
picnic lunch put out by our other guides, Marika and Lica. It was delicious. Then we got fitted to our bikes and went on
our ride. It was a 29 km (18 mile) ride
with a few hills, but the thing that made it challenging was the heat. It was 87-90 degrees and sunny. Jessie got pretty tired by the end, but we
all made it up to this amazing villa that has been turned in to an Inn. It’s spectacular. We went swimming, sat out and read and then
had appetizers and dinner outside looking at the beautiful Tuscan hills. It was a great start to our trip.
Tomorrow we ride to the highest town in Tuscany, which I
believe is 2,000 ft above sea level (but only 1,000 feet above where we are
now).
# posted by Craig @ 11:30 PM 
