So I'm covering two days of incredible riding in this here post. Yesterday morning we left Livorno after an incredible night breathing in the sea air. The ride, approx 70m, was the perfect distance for 2 riders still breaking in their legs.
We followed the coast for almost the entire ride with lots of good, but manageable climbs. For the first 20m of overcast we would move from high atop bluffs looking out over the Mediterranean down into stretches of narrow road with dense, Florida Everglade-like vegetation on both sides of the road. I kept thinking how much the plants looked like the mangroves that grow out of the canals and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
During what is now our regular mid-morning stop at a fruit market, the rain started to come down quite hard. We took the opportunity to stretch, 30 minutes later it had passed and 15 minutes after that the sun made its first appearance of the day.
The second stretch of riding brought about our first off-road adventure of the trip. As we followed the coast heading south we entered a sizable stretch of flat road with forest to the right (between us and the coast) and open farm field to our left. As we continued along the road we weren't certain whether it would lead us in a big circle, dead end, or what. We continued despite our reservations and arrived at what appeared to be a dead end. There was, however, a very narrow, puddle-filled dirt road that ran directly from where we were towards the parallel highway that we could see over a mile away. We went for it and it was that mile stretch that provided our off-road adventure. What made it tricky were the puddles - every few yards - in the middle of the road that we sought to avoid by weaving in and out on either side of each. We couldn't just stay to one side because there was enough room to get around each puddle only on alternating sides. We embraced the obstacle course and were pleased to find paved road on the other side.
It was fitting that the sun shone brightly for the third stretch of ride as we made our way though half a dozen beach towns. The winds out of the south slowed our progress considerably but the sunshine felt great.
Our final stretch of ride through the dusk brought us through an enormous, lush valley dotted by the characteristically Italian pastel farmhouses and back towards the coast after having been taken inland a bit. It was absolutely breathtaking.
Just before dark we reached the small port town Castiglione della Pescaia and found a discreet little area to make camp for the night. We settled in, exhausted for a night sleeping under the stars. We were not expecting the rain...
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