Urbanus Magnus

Note: we are staggering our posts as we have been finding the internet to be slow and spotty coverage. All our posts are behind a few days. June 4 was our first true riding day, where we were tested by the Italian hills and our fully loaded bicycles. The weather cooperated with us for the most part, but we did have to stop around 2pm for about 45 minutes to avoid a down-pour. We found refuge under the overhang of the roof of San Andrea, a tiny country church, about a third of the way between Florence and San Gimignano. We were certainly expecting hills - but I think we (*Ryan*) somewhat underestimated the actual magnitude of the climbs. Here are some stats for our Florence-San Gimignano trek: Total Distance: 60.5 km Average (Moving) Speed: 9.98 km/h Max Speed: 49.3 km/h (gotta love the ride down, after the long climb up!) Min Elevation: 81 m Max Elevation: 443 m Total Elevation Gain: 2087 m We found that our unlocked Galaxy Nexus phone was invaluable for gui...

*Watch for updates on  this page . The Italian cycling trip has changed quite significantly in the second rendition. Now, we will be avoiding the western oceanfront and heading through the heartland of Italy: Central Tuscany. The stops include  Firenze (Florence), where we'll be flying in, followed by cycling through the great Italian hill towns of San Gimignano,  Volterra, Siena, Montalcino, Montepulciano, Orvieto and Viterbo. From Viterbo, the rest of the inter-city transit will be done by train; we head to Rome through the Ferrovie Regionale (regional railway), then Pompei and Napoli (Naples). Some Sights: Pozzo di S. Patrizio - St. Patrick's Well Orvieto Underground Piazza della Cisterna Roman Theatre Of Volterra Rick Steves on Tuscan Hill Towns Map View Cycling Italy in a larger map Itinerary May:      31. Depart from Toronto, Flight to Firenze (Florence) June Arrive Firenze --> A few sights, then sleep ...

It looks as if the entire itinerary  of the Italy Trip may be changed. I'm one who loves the countryside, but a trip with few sights won't be that exciting. The cycling portion of the trip I had planned skirts the seaside of Tuscany and a bit of Lazio, hitting the small towns and countryside. No big sights to see, aside from San Gimignano, and Pisa, in the first 150km of the trip. It would have been primarily about enjoying the Italian countryside - which is admittedly far more beautiful, hilly and varied than most of Southern Ontario. My fears of less-than-optimal trip planning were confirmed when I pulled some Rick Steves guidebooks off the shelves of my local library. I was expecting the small towns to at least have a few sights, but apart from 2 or 3 Etruscan tomb museums, there aren`t too many impressive sights to see. I'm sad at learning that my many hours of meticulous kilometer-by-kilometer trip planning hadn't taken into account the other sights of Tuscany;...