Looking for spring in Tuscany

[Django]

Prologue:

Yes, it can be cold in Germany and after three months wintertime we all long for spring. So, why not go to the south, to Italy, to have a sneak preview, how it would be here in a month or so.

Well, kinda like that I persuaded a friend to come along with me to a one week trip to Tuscany.

Then, as I'm already a member of Iron Butt Association , it came quickly to our mind, to ride a Saddle Sore 1600K (1,000 miles) in 24 hours to Italy. When in Italy, the idea was, to have fun on 2. and 3. level back roads in the hills and mountains around Tuscany and then ride back to Germany directly over (thru) the Alps.

We booked a bed&breakfast in Civitavecchia April 04 until 06, a Hotel in Castellina (near Siena) April 06 until 09, and a Hotel in Rapallo (east of Genua) April 09 until 11. Planning of the major routes was done at home, oil change at my CB, new tires Bridgestone T30 mounted, chain maintenance and here we were, ready to go.

Day 1, Saturday April 04

When you want to ride a saddle sore, you better get up early.

The bike was packed the evening before and after about 4 hours of sleep the alarm went of at 3:15 am. At 3:40 I was rolling out of the garage and, ....it was raining and cold 5°C, not the conditions you really wanted to ride a saddle sore.

My wife took a picture of me and on the road I was, heading for the gas station to get the first fueling receipt, which is the starting point of the saddle sore.


(please note the clean bike)


4:00 am, I'm on the Autobahn, the real ride starts.

4:30 am, I picked up my colleague at Pforzheim motorway service area, still raining.

The route was from Stuttgart over Karlsruhe to Freiburg, then heading west to France to Dijon, then south along river Saone, Rhone, passing Lyon, down to Marseille, then east to Monaco, going to Italy and then along the Riviera down to Civitavecchia, only 100 km before Rome.

Here you can see our way down, which I tracked with my Gamin Zumo 660:
[url=http://www.gpsies.com/mapOnly.do?fileId=igrtivxvjbxauumg]http://www.gpsies.com/mapOnly.do?fileId=igrtivxvjbxauumg

7:00 am, one of the French toll stations at dawn, still raining,


8:00 am, service area near Besancon, my friend and his 1992 BMW K100RS 4V:


Basically it was raining the first 650 km until Lyon. However, the rain became warmer.

01:05 pm, Montelimar service area, we're thinking about to take off rain gear.


03:15 pm, Cote d'Azure not far to Nice, sun is shining:


We were quite optimistic for the rest of the trip. However, after passing Monaco and entering Italy we called our host, to announce our approx. time of arrival. She told us, it was raining in Civitavecchia. Bad news.

Actually, it soon began to rain cats and dogs again and the rain accompanied us the last 350 km.

I have very good boots with a Goretex membrane to keep the wet out. However, they failed for the first time and I had really water inside the boots.

00:00 midnight, finally we reached really tired our B&B in Civitavecchia and I was ready for a hot shower. The host gave us a welcome with a cognac, which was really appreciated.

Here is a picture of the fine house of our host in Civitavecchia, token at the next day:


When I started at home, my odometer showed km 5,473, at Civitavecchia it showed km 7,252. The gps gave me 1,725 km for the day, about 1,000 km of it we managed in the rain.

Well, that's quite a trip for a day.