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.

 

[Frulk_imp]

Ausgezeichnet!!!!

 

[Rocky_imp]

Nice ride

 

[ride4now_imp]

Very, very nice!!!! Thanks for posting.

 

[Elipten_imp]

Super ride, thanks for sharing.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Grinton_imp]

welcome in Italia Django

 

[the Ferret]

Wow yea, that's a lot of rain riding. Looks like a great trip despite the weather.

 

[Django]

Day 2 - Easter Sunday in Rome

After some real good sleep we got up Sunday morning to get Italian breakfast, which actually is just some brioche and very black Italian coffee.

The plan for today had been, to relax and may have a short ride up the hills. However, looking at a temperature of only 5°C (same as in Germany!), very cloudy sky and some cold rain, we decided to have a walk to the downtown of Civitavecchia and to leave the bikes at the parking lot of our host.

During the walk we had a view at the ferry harbor of Civitavecchia.

It was not really our idea and we hadn't considered to visit Rome at all, but then our host came up with that proposal, why not visit Rome? It's just one hour trip with the train and costs 5 Euro.

No sooner said than done. In the afternoon we arrived at the railway station Rome Termini in the center of Rome.

But what to do with just one afternoon in Rome? We decided to take the Metro to visit the Collosseum, which is nearly 2,000 years old, the largest amphitheatre in the world, and considered one of the greatest works of architecture and engineering. Coming out of the metro station and then standing in front of this ancient and huge building was really impressiv!

Here is more information about the Collosseum:
Colosseum - Wikipedia

We had some more side walks in that area, ...

...and returned in the evening to Civitavecchia by train.

 

[the Ferret]

Man those pictures of Rome are awesome. I still can't fathom how they were able to construct building like coliseum 2000 years ago. Simply inspiring.

 

[Rick Froscheiser_imp]

Very good write up and pictures! Thanks for sharing. Enjoy your trip and ride safe.

 

[Django]

Day 3 - 319 km from Civitavecchia to Castellina

After breakfast, we packed our motorcycles again and said good-bye to our friendly host.

While this morning the sun was shining, it was quite chilly and there was a stiff breeze from north.

We had prepared a route up to the hills and then north to Tuscany, all back country roads, passing beautiful landscape, nice little towns and small winding roads. We just had to follow our Garmin Zumo 660, which should lead us our route the next 319 km to the next booked hotel in Castellina, north of famous Siena.

This time I uploaded our track to google maps to allow you, to follow us on the map:
--> Link to track at google maps <--

Right after leaving Civitavecchia we enjoyed riding the twisty road up to the hills. In the little village Tolfa we had our first rest to savour the nice landscape.





Then we followed the small winding roads to Pitigliano,







had a stop at Sorano







and finally made it to Siena.



From here it was less than an hour to our hotel in Castellina, a former homestead, surrounded by grapevines.





We were very happy with the day, the ride and this really beautiful hotel. This could only be completed with a tasty original Italian pizza and half a liter Chianti wine and some Grappa in the nearby restaurant.

 

[the Ferret]

dang, that is just so beautiful.

 

[Grinton_imp]

since you're in the area, you should also visit San Gimignano, Volterra and Monteriggioni. everything is doable in tranquility in a day

 

[4fout2_imp]

for sharing!

Wow that is unreal. You have me dreaming of riding through there. I would probably wreck from looking at the scenery. Those roads will test ones skills as a rider. Too cool....Congrats on a great ride!

 

[Django]

since you're in the area, you should also visit San Gimignano, Volterra and Monteriggioni. everything is doable in tranquility in a day

Grinton, we are already at home again. That trip was last week. Indeed we were in San Gimignano and Volterra the day after.

 

[Cormanus]

Fantastic report and photos Django. Italy looks beautiful.

The first day's ride was impressive, although I think I'll be happy if I never become an iron butt rider. I've gone close to an iron cheek once or twice and that's enough!

 

[Django]

Day 4 - Tuesday, 236 km round trip to Massa Maritima

Tuesday morning the sun was shining down at our hotel.

At breakfast, we planned the tour for today using basecamp at my notebook. We got some hints from our host the evening before and decided, that we wanted to visit San Gimignano, Volterra and Massa Maritima. In between we looked for winding back roads to explore the country side.

We loaded the route down to our Garmin, geared up and off we were.

--> Link to tour at Google maps <--

The curves began to wind right away when we went down to Poggibonsi, where we fueled up. Then we found our way to San Gimignano, where we parked our bikes outside the city walls.



We had a walk thru the village. The streets and places were already quite crowded by tourist. How must that be in summer time during season?







Then we followed the beautiful country roads to Volterra. By the way, the was basically no traffic at the road and we really enjoyed letting it go.

Here we parked our bikes at the entry to Volterra.







Next stop was in Massa Maritima, where we had a coffee at the plaza. We rode and rode and didn't get tired to catch up those small roads without straight stretches longer than 100 meter.

Finally we were back just before sun set at our hotel, took a shower and looked out for dinner.

Nice day!

 

[the Ferret]

another set of astonishing photos. You must be having a grand time Django.

 

[Cormanus]

More great photos. Thanks Django.

 

[jerrycon_imp]

Thanks, Django. I feel like I just took a little tour of Europe. Your CB looks good, but so does your buddy's BMW. It looks so functional.