Ride Day 9: Valdobiedenne to Firenza

"Wait," you say.  "How can you ride from Valdobiedenne all the way to Firenza.  Why, that's at least 300 km."  Yeah, you're right.  We could not possibly ride that far in a day.  So we'll ride about 30 km to Montebelluna and hop on a train to Firenza (which actually requires three transfers).  That should be easy enough.

 We made it to Florence yesterday.  We rode a little (to Montebelluna, about 30 km from Valdobiadenne) then hoped on three different trains.

In Italy a bike can only be taken on the regional trains – the ones that stop at every station.  The faster intercity and freccia trains don’t allow bikes.  So we bought a ticket from Montebelluna to Padova, Padova to Bologna, and Bologna to Prato.  Then we rode the last 40 km from Prato to Florence.

All things considered it went really smoothly.  You don’t see tandems in Italy and getting the monster on the trains can be a bit of a chore.  I huck the bike in and Lorie grabs all of the bags and dashes in.  We often have to wedge the bike between other bikes and stand there and hold it, but it works fine.

One train was crowded...

And one train was just us...

So here we are in Florence.  This is a beautiful with some of the most historically striking art and architecture in the world.  We rode into town from the west, along the dirt road that runs parallel to the Arno river.  It was a great ride, the track very smooth.  Just outside of town the dirt turns to a paved bike path.  

Riding up the Arno toward Florence

The famous Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio

When we got to the city we had to get off the bike a walk.  The streets are fairly clogged with people so it is difficult to ride safely.  To the city’s credit, a lot of town is a walk-only zone – no cars.  But walking is slow and we had to be careful to no run anyone down with the bike.

Fortunately, the city itself is pretty small and our hotel is located centrally, so we didn’t have far to walk with the bike.  By the time we got into our apartment it was getting late and we were hungry, so we walked to a market and grabbed some food.  We were both hoping for a fresh salad so we bought veggies and headed back to our apartment.  But along the way we had a negroni and we stopped by a bike shop to buy a new back tire – I figured out what had caused the blowout last week and we are lucky that it didn’t happen again as some of the wire that is in the tire bead had broken and was protruding into the interior of the tire, into the tube.  The only reason that I noticed it was that when I was sitting next to the bike on the train I saw an odd lump on the tire, right on the bead.  I took it apart and found the broken wire.  But the new tire is now installed and we are ready to roll.

A good negroni always helps one's frame of mind

 But first, we have a day in Florence to explore and see at least some of the things we want to see.  Our strategy was to start the day early and see some of what we wanted to see before the crowds picked up.  At 0700 the city was pretty manageable with few tourists up yet.  We strolled over the Ponte Vecchio and had coffee on the other side of the river, then meandered through the Uffizi gallery area and the outdoor statuary. 

The Duomo in morning

A reproduction of the David (4 hour wait to see the real thing)

The Rape of the Sabines

By 0800 the crowds were building and we decided to walk out of the center to the outer rings (the city publishes maps with a yellow circle that denotes the “safe zone.”  We assumed that the safe zone is where it is expensive and safe to spend money.  The further out of the safe zone we got, the better the city felt – like a typical Italian city.  Busy with the things that go on in a city.  We found a bakery and bought a loaf of what the baker said was a traditional Florentine bread, and a focaccia integrale.  (This was the first real bakery we found in Italy and the bread is pretty good.)  And we found another coffee shop on the piazza Libertad that had good coffee.

Our second coffee of the morning

Heading back to the safe zone shortly after noon we were met with big crowds.  We didn’t want to wait in line for 4 hours to go through the Uffizi gallery, visit the Duomo, or see the David, so we headed back to our apartment.  Lorie and I both remember when we were much younger in Florence you could simply walk into the galleries, the Duomo, and the museum that houses the David.  I guess that it isn’t surprising that more effort is required these days.

The crowds are building

Mid-morning at the Duomo

We are looking forward to heading south tomorrow, toward Montelpuciano.  It is a 2-day ride, so tomorrow night we are staying in a BnB just outside a national park.