Excersize and a View

Oh. My. Gosh. The bike tour today was amazing. John, Boof (aka Booth, aka Boothie, aka Boofie, aka Christie) and I met at 8:45 this morning on the Ponte Santo Trinita. We walked along the river to the meeting spot for the bike tour and left Firenze at about 9:30. A few miles outside of the touristy part of Firenze, we geared up for a challenging bike ride; we put on our helmets, fitted the height of our seats, and loaded our water bottles in their holsters.

We rode only a few blocks and were away from most of the traffic in the city. We were in the tuscan countryside: wow - so, so, so, so beautiful. We biked up and up and up and up the 'hills' of the chianti region. This region of Tuscany is called the chianti region because of the kind of grapes grown from its soil. I can't recall the exact mix of grapes needed to be classified as chianti, but it is very specific.

Our tour guide, Bill (ryhmes with hill), was excellent. He told us about the ways olives are harvested (usually by hand, depending on size), the place where Michaelangelo spent his summers, and about how Dante and DaVinci gained inspiration from the very hills we were traversing. Bill told us some local folklore about DaVinci and his first attempts at flying in a small, mountain town called Fiesole. This village overlooks all of Firenze. After riding up and up and up, we walked up and up and up to a beautiful scenic overlook of the city. We sat there for a while, resting, and learned a few key italian gestures. I feel like I am part of a secret italian club now, although I am definitely not (not yet, anyways).

At this point it was about 12:00 and we had another half an hour bike ride to lunch. This portion of the bike ride was not exactly up, up, up, but it was certainly not down. After another sweat-inducing ride, we arrived at a family-run restaurant near a town called Olmo. At the restaurant (where we were certainly the only ones speaking english), we had red wine from a local vineyard, bruschetta, ravioli with a potato filling, and pasta in red sauce with zucchini. We finished the meal with an espresso, as is course after any big italian meal. It was all delicious: absolutely delicious.

After we sat for a few minutes after the huge meal, we got back on our bikes and took a short ride to a nearby vineyard. We walked through the cellars where the wine is kept in big barrels (holding 10,000 litres of wine - that's 13,333 bottles of wine), in and around where the wine ferments (for 8-10 days with the help of yeast), and out in the beautiful fields where the villa has almond trees, pomogranite bushes (?), and (of course) grape vines. From the beauty of the fields, we got back on our bikes and coasted down, doing the reverse of the earlier up, up, ups. This part was absolutely wonderful. I was breathing deeply, soaking in the view, and loving the break from being in the bustle of the city. The air smelled wonderful and my smile was big.

Now Christie is in the internet cafe with me and taking care of some business. We are about to go back to her hotel to drink the delicious wine we bought at the vineyard today and relax by her rooftop pool. Does it get any better than this?

Love, love, love. Baci