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My Bike - a Wilier. She's a beauty!
Her name is Florence. |
To get out of
Firenze you mostly need to go up. That’s
because Firenze is in a valley surrounded on all sides by hills. Along the
river Arno is the flattest part. Why
this detail is important is that when you’re BIKING in Tuscany, hills are just
part of the experience. And today, I did hills.
A few months ago,
I got a bike to give me something to do while doing nothing on sabbatical. I love riding and the weather had turned
nice, and well, I thought that riding in the Tuscan countryside would be a “once-in-a-lifetime”
thing to do. I was incredibly fortunate to
have met two cyclists from London (Veronica & David) through my friend
Jackie T (Toronto) who took me out for a ride one sunny late-March afternoon.
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| En Route, on Route 222, near Ugolino. |
That ride was 40km
long, and it was when I was introduced to “the Grassina Hill.” The Grassina Hill is on Route S222, starts in
the centre of Grassina (a pretty little town 10km south of Firenze) and then
goes up. I remember Veronica saying to
me as we started climbing, “This hill is only about 2km long.” “Great,” I thought to myself, “You’ve ridden
to Siena from Firenze (90km of hills!), and I haven’t been on a bike in over a
year!” but I made it up the Grassina Hill (a 120 metre vertical rise) and the
rest of the ride was mostly downhill, which I really appreciated.
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There are signs when you arrive and leave a town.
This one way on the way out of Greve - proof I made it! |
Since that first
ride, my goal has always been to ride to Greve in Chianti,
a little town 30km south of Firenze. When
Buzz and Lori were visiting last month, we went to Greve one morning and drove
a portion of the route I took today. All
I thought at the time was, “wow, there are lots of steep hills on this route!”
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The Chianti Festival was on in Greve, but nothing was happening at 10:15am.
Too bad - I LOVE Chianti Classico. |
But today, I got
up early, had my usual riding-day breakfast of porridge, and at 9am, I was on
the road. It was overcast, but warm –
just perfect riding weather. The
Grassina Hill didn’t seem difficult anymore, having done it about 5 times by
now, and I had “tried” some of the hills past Strada in Chianti, so I knew I
could do them.
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| Top of the Route - looking south to Greve. |
But I had not
climbed to the top of the route and I knew it was steep. Well, I used every gear on my bike but made
it up! (Elevation: 344 metres – total vertical climb from Firenze: 290 metres)
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| Top of the Route - looking the other way way - north to Firenze |
I arrived in
Greve at 10:15, a bit tired but completely satisfied at having achieved my
goal. I walked the main piazza, had a café,
stretched my legs, and hopped back on my bike for the ride home.
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| Greve was full of cyclists. This is where I had my mid-morning cafe. |
One nice thing
about riding UP hills is you eventually get to go DOWN them and that’s always
fun. After today, I won’t complain about
riding up the Niagara Escarpment on the Ride
to Conquer Cancer, or the few little hills on the way from Toronto to
Montreal during the Friends for Life Bike
Rally. I think I’ve finally become
one with the hills of Tuscany, and now I can start exploring!
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| Greve's main piazza. |
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Greve's famous native son: Giovanni Verrazzano.
Think "the Verrazzano Bridge" in NYC. |
