This is what a good Italian hotel breakfast buffet looks like. There is some fresh fruit but lots of everything else, including delicious croissants. We had this buffet this morning at Villa Casalecchi.
When I checked out of the hotel, I had to pay for last night’s dinner. I handed Umberto my VISA card and all of a sudden it disappeared. Umberto is around my age or a little older, so I understood his consternation and confusion about where it went. Fortunately Stacie was waiting to pay her bill and she found it. It had dropped down onto a computer peripheral between two tables. Umberto and I were very happy.
I started riding around 9:00. The road out of the villa was loose, thick gravel and a little dicey to ride on. I made it without crashing and met several others from our group at the end ready to enter the main road and start our ride. We had a nice downhill at the start. All of us stopped at a turnout to take a photo of the fabulous scenery.
After the photo op, I went on a mission to find a grocery store so I could buy some bananas. I guess that I go a bit faster than most on the downhill because in a short while, nobody was behind me. I found the grocery store and bought a few bananas which I stuffed into my back pocket.
The rest of my ride was fairly uneventful. I stopped to take photos, eat a banana and a Mars Bar and to eat lunch at a unroach coach. I say unroach because the coach was very clean, had a patio with picnic tables and even had potted plants in front. My salami sandwich even had mayonnaise on it. The timing of this stop was perfect because I was getting a little hungry and I didn’t want to repeat yesterday’s problem where I had trouble finding a place to eat. I only had about 12 miles to go to San Gimignano but I needed some food to get me to the end of the ride easier.
On the way into San Gimignano I passed a chicken farm. I wouldn’t have known it if I hadn’t heard a bunch of roosters crowing. This must be a prime area for chicken farming because I saw a truck or two hauling chickens to market.
The ride today was much easier than yesterday’s ride. It was a bit shorter and a lot less climbing. The weather was perfect – 70’s to low 80’s. I got to our hotel around 2:00. The van was parked outside the city waiting for Julie and Tom to arrive. Martha had driven it here, but Tom was reluctant to have her drive through the narrow town gates to get to the hotel and unload our luggage. So Martha, Dave, Jerry and I waited until the Leevers got here having a good conversation and drinking lots of water at the hotel’s outdoor cafe.
Happy hour was on a terrace of our hotel outside three of our group’s rooms. The view from the terrace was wonderful. After Happy Hour we had a pizza party with pizzas and salads from two different pizzerias.
Daily Statistics
| Miles | Max | Average | Riding Time | Elevation Gain | Weather |
| 43 | 37.8 | 12 | 3:34 | 3230 | Sunny, 60’s to 80’s |
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