Goodbye friend, hello friend
Florence to Siena, 17th - 18th April
In Italy, the street names are nearly always simply names of historical figures. For example, Via Giuseppe Verdi, or just Via G. Verdi for short. Usually the people are local or national Italian politicians, but I've spotted a few more unusual ones: Via Edoardo Jenner, Via M. K. Gandhi, Via A. Frank, Viale Ilic Uljanov Lenin. On my way out of Florence I passed through my favourite so far: Viale Giorgio Washington.
I enjoyed the opportunity to slow down for a day in Florence and spend two nights in the same place. It's a very heavily touristed city, which unfortunately means that the entire city centre caters for Americans and the locals generally treat you like a bit of a pest. That's a big reason I don't like touristy places - not just the corruption of the town's character, but the feeling that I'm a part of the problem. I try my best to be a thoughtful visitor and eg. speak Italian, but in such places it feels pretty useless, and the bike in particular becomes a major inconvenience, if you choose to take it instead of public transport.
I was lucky to find a Florence Warmshowers host on just a few days notice, and I knew I was getting in for an interesting time from his profile and the questionnaire I had to fill in by email before he confirmed that I could stay. He's an undoubtedly very generous and prolific host, almost always with a guest in his house, and over the two nights I met three French bike travellers: one couple and one solo, which was a fun experience. Our host had a lot of house rules, some which made sense (you must be out of the house when he is out of the house), and some which completely puzzled me (no showers between 19:30 and 22:30). After two nights I was glad to regain some independence when I left.
My next target was Siena, but now I was in Tuscany I had to start worrying about hills in my route planning, and I decided to spare my legs a bit and first spend a night in a Via Francigena pilgrim town on the way. I'd heard good things about the town Colle di Val d'Elsa and it was pretty as promised, but took me longer than I'd expected to ride to. Tuscany has a totally different character from Emilia-Romagna and the hills here are no joke. Unlike the Appenines, these are rolling hills going up and down constantly. I had fun getting onto a rhythm on the small ones: zoom downhill, use the momentum to get most of the way up the next, then take out a lactic acid loan to get over the crest and start again. It's beautiful the whole way even when the climbs are hard, and I was always stopping on hilltops to take pictures of the scenic landscape. A brief downpour saw me take an enforced rain-shelter break, and I was overjoyed when a Lidl gave me an opportunity to scare some local children by scoffing pastries in the car park. Tragically, my precious fold-out mirror was killed at a quick stop as it got bent the wrong way and snapped a little piece of plastic. I love these little mirrors, but they are far too flimsy.
The next day I had a much shorter ride to Siena, and enjoyed overtaking and chatting with various walking pilgrims who I'd befriended in the pilgrim hostel in Colle di Val d'Elsa. I'm constantly surprised at what a social experience it is to solo travel on a bicycle. I had an early dinner with the priest and his friends (Friday, so they were "fasting" by not eating meat but rather lots of fish, vegetables, and white wine), and in the evening went for a walk around Siena with a familiar face: the solo French bike traveller from my Warmshower in Florence! She'd stayed another night in Florence and ridden to Siena in a single day, and had already planned her accomodation for the upcoming Easter weekend. I foolishly hadn't, and Easter is a pretty big deal in Italy, so I was happy to accept when she offered to split the cost of the hotel room she'd booked in her next stop, San Quirico. We wouldn't ride together during the day, but I was glad to have a place to sleep without having to go to any effort to book it myself, and it'd be fun to hang out with a fellow traveller.
I enjoyed the atmosphere in Siena on Good Friday - everybody on holiday for the next few days, teenagers playing stupid games in the main piazza, young people crowding outside bars. The city was really stunning as well, with a medieval old centre unlike any other that I've seen, and significantly less touristy than Florence, though that's a low bar. I'd have loved to see one of the twice annual horse races, but alas they only happen in the summer. I'm amazed at how close Rome now seems - less than a week's ride. It feels bizarre to have made it this far without really thinking very much about what I'm doing, and I wonder when this feeling will pass. Perhaps if I were to plan things further in advance? For now, though, I'm happy to just look one or two days ahead and make my plans up as I go. Next stop, pilgrim town San Quirico.