Distance 69.58miles ride time 5hr17min average speed 13.13mph max spd 34.97mph
Altitude up 1242ft
We woke to beautiful blue skies, last night was very comfortable in the shack we shouldn't have been in! The sunny morning meant we could get everything dry, happy times.
Embarking up to Pass della Cisa meant more climbing but it was a mainly gentle climb over a few miles, at times I could see back over the Po floodplain to the Alps they must have been 100miles away at this point so it was a very clear day and probably the most stunning view of the trip. I was hoping to catch views of the sea the other way but it was not possible.
Pass della Cisa stands at 1041m that's about 50m higher than Snowdon and pretty much half of the Gotthard pass we went over in Switzerland. It was way better than the Gotthard experience though, for starters the views were so much better today and more importantly there was just no traffic to speak of, just a few cyclists and motorbikes.
There is a little shop and a church on top of the pass which is covered in thick forest. I looked around the souvenir shop to see if I could find a little present for Hayley, it was the worst kind of grot ever, snow domes and little plastic bears etc. sorry Hayley no presents from there!!
Descending from the Cisa pass was some of the most fun cycling we've done, I overtook an old lady in a car who was going very slowly and that felt good on a bike!! It was winding but never scary and just great fun.
We hit Pontremoli and found a garage to get a drink, to our surprise after the woman had served us she said "so don't tell me you've cycled here from London" in a thick London accent!! She was italian born but grew up in London so was the 2nd English person we had chatted to today, earlier during the descent we had pulled into a viewing point where 3 people were sitting, one was an English man who had left Canterbury on foot on June the 1st and here he was walking the pilgrims route to Rome.
He sounded like he was from Yorkshire to me with a lovely soft accent and it was really nice to chat to him about his travels and ours.
After Pontremoli the traffic was heavy and it was flat but not enjoyable with huge lorries going by too close, the Italians do not all observe the metre rule like the French, there is no law about it here. Italy has been my favourite country to tour in though, despite the Italians living up to their stereotype as 'bodgie Premadonnas' they know how to live and how to make darn good food!
We hit the cost and 20 miles of hotels, cafés, bars and private beaches you only got an occasional view of the sea through it all, the area is just one continuos tourist strip. It is ok but not somewhere if come again in a hurry, I managed to sneak a dip in one of the few public beaches, the Med is warm and you can stay in for ages although the current was strong so I had to be careful.
Riding down the coast was not the easy cruise you might think, it was chaos, particularly on the bike path. joggers, walkers, slow cyclists, prams, cars pulling out, kids cycling with their friend sat on the frame, a towel under the bum for comfort! Dads with kids standing on the pannier rack (hands on dad's shoulders) whilst dad is on the phone and cycling!!! All these people seemed to want to try and cause us to crash, so we sensibly just stayed on the road with the crazy drivers, at one point an old couple crossed the road with walking sticks holding up the traffic, I've never seen people walk that slowly, they then stopped to have an argument with each other in the middle of the road, it was hilarious.
Campsite was found, we are 12 miles from Pisa, A meal was eaten after a long walk into town and dessert came in the form of a massive ice cream from Mario's Gelatteria, awesome!!
John had 2 glasses of sparkling wine with dinner and this loosened him up enough for him to explain how much of a 'teacher' I am all the time, rather than being annoyed by this I appreciated his candour and agreed with him to be honest, Maybe I'll come home a changed man*
A good day today, Pisa tomorrow.
*don't get your hopes up Hayley!
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