Fri Aug 25, Varazze – The previous night’s grappa drinking/lessons with the chef and other staff, and the morning’s smart navigation despite wrong ways down one ways made getting out of Florence on Thursday morning a longer process than expected. We rode through Prato and Pistoia, and began climbing. That was an impressive climb out towards Prunetta, then meandering through deep mountain valleys with Tuscan villages clinging to their steep sides, and a final, beautiful climb up the coastal range and a never-ending descent to Forte dei Marrmi on the coast. This town is the posh town on the Ligurian coast, which meant an overwhelmingly delicious dinner (winner was the gnocchi with scampi) at an otherwise complete Trattoria Tre Stelle, gorgeous cars (Bentleys, Porsche GT), lots of people watching, a wide soft sand beach with miles of umbrella loungers, and, as we found out the next day, a catwalk of fully committed road cyclists.
The catwalk included hundreds of cyclists, many in packs, cruising the strip at a comfortable clip, strutting their stuff, shmoozing the Italian, and checking each other’s gear out. And most of it was little known Italian carbon frames. It wasn’t the most ideal condition though — lots of traffic and chaos led me to a bump into the back of a quickly braked car, an punctured tire (saved by a great shop right there), and other close calls and one witnessed accident.
We followed the coast, endlessly descending to town inlets on the sea and ascending out, which made for a tough way to accumulate kms. We added a bonus tour to the stunning Cinque Terre and Levano. It was very difficult to leave.
We spun through Genova, the gorgeously architected city center and continuing city sprawl and settled in Varazze for the night. Tomorrow we either push approx 260 kms to the finish in Provence or stop for a Saturday night in Monaco. In either case, I can’t wait until my two day vacation in Provence after this two week trip.