Urbanus Magnus

We arrived safely back home at around 11:30pm Toronto time Monday the 18th, after 2 stopovers (one in Frankfurt, the other in Washington, DC), and a lot of confusion in the Naples Int'l Airport. Certainly a bad experience with staff, which lead to us both nearly missing our flight, and also damage to our bicycles. But more on that will come with the Naples posting later. Internet from Rome and south of there had been extremely spotty, and expensive at times (5 euro per hour at a few of our hotels - and still slow by N. American standards), so we haven't yet posted about our visits from Siena onwards. Besides, making time for blog-writing was difficult, what with all the sights planned. For the next few days, I will be writing-up the log of the rest of the trip. So, expect Montalcino's write-up tomorrow, then that of Montepulciano on Friday, followed by posts for Orvieto, Viterbo, Rome, Pompeii, and Napoli and our returning flight in the next week-and-a-bit. After a G...

The planning continues, and now I've managed to figure out all the stops, the route and where we will camp on our journey from Florence to Rome, Naples, Pompeii and the Amalfi coast. The aeroplane has been booked - leaving May 31 from Toronto Pearson, to arrive June 1 in Florence. We will be returning almost 3 weeks later, flying out on June 18th with 2 layovers (Frankfurt, Germany, and Washington, D.C.) before we arrive back in Toronto. The Itinerary in Brief: 5/31 -  18:40 departure from Toronto 6/1 - 14:00 arrival in Florence! ----> Rest-up day. 6/2 - Touring Florence, seeing the sights. 6/3 - Florence to San Gimignano: 74km        - 8:00 departure by bike        - ETA 17:00        - 17:00 - 20:00; dinner + evening in town        - 21:00; Lodging - arrival @ Camping Baschetto di Piemma 6/4 - San Gimignano to Colleoli: 53km        - 8:00 -13:00; breakfast/tour/lunc...