Today was our last day in Tuscany. We spent the first half on a mountain bike doing a bike tour of this region. Our tour guide, Ingo, took us on a route that was used thousands of years ago for people making a pilgrimage to Rome. He said that while a 1000 people would start at any given tome, only 100 would get there and only 50 make it back! The most famous and detailed description of this trek was by the bishop (Chauncer ? Spelling) of Canterbury who walked 2000 kilometers from England to Rome. He detailed what the "road" was like for the travelers. While the wealthy stayed in castles like Castle de Pietro, the poor and common folk stayed in churches along the route. Many would only travel 20 km/day and had to find work to buy food etc! It gives one pause to think of the difficult journeys our ancestors took to get to Rome. I complained about the delay leaving Charlotte when we went 6000 miles I'm 8 hours! Humbling to say the least!
A tidbit we learned while on the road was that the reason the bread here in Tuscany is kind of bland ( no salt) is that the early settlers used their salt to age their meats which was more of a priority than salt in the bread. Anyone who has tasted prosciutto and other meats like salami knows that they are full of sodium!
The bike tour was described as "gentle rolling hills" whereas in reality it was at times 70 degree inclines of gravel and dirt. Liars! Our Tami was the real hero of the day...1 year post knee replacement surgery and 8 stents and the gal did NOT give up! Ingo provided some moral and physical support as needed, but you can't keep a good gal down! Ingo would provide us with the history of the region and answer questions big and small. We met Jamie and Mike from Seattle WA who are about to celebrate their first anniversary. Mike made it up the big hill to the castle while the rest of us pushed our bikes! We ended the tour with lunch (cold beer ..Moretti), lunch, and gelato. Actually in true form I had an espresso while the rest of the gang had geloto.
Highlights of the bike tour in my opinion were:
-eating figs fresh off a fig tree! Hey people, don't knock it until you try it! As Ingo said " no spray" meaning no pesticides!
-going downhill at a million miles per hour (so I exaggerate!) I loved me my downhill coasting at fast speeds
-seeing how far we rode- pretty cool to turn around
-the end of the bike tour ( no regrets, but happy it ended)
- and that FIRST sip of cold beer...perfecto!
Tonight, dinner in San Gimignano and then pack for Florence! Andiamo!
Mary
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