Bike Tour of Tuscany, May 1999
Some notes by Monica Foulkes
(Narragansett Bay Wheelmen member)

IN MEDIA RES:

The road from Montepulciano to Pienza drops steeply outside the medieval walls, and I braked cautiously on the sharp turns after coming out through the dimness of the Porta di Grassi into the early morning sun. After almost two weeks of bike touring in Tuscany I had learned to expect these long descents each morning from the medieval towns that guard the highest hills -- and also to expect the equally long, grinding climbs up to them each evening. At first looking down on the honey-colored stones of the Renaissance church of San Biagio, the road wound all the way around it, then below it, before swinging out into the magnificent valley.

It was early morning in May, 1999, and we four NBW riders had the road to ourselves. Siena lay in sunny haze somewhere to the north, and to the south were rolling, poppy-covered fields, scattered olive groves and grape vines, topped by the occasional farmhouse. The descent was enticingly fast and the road was smooth, but I braked to look back up at the church and Montepulciano's jumble of red-tiled roofs and towers above, trying to freeze the memory. Surely, centuries before me this same sight greeted weary pilgrims trudging up from the Monte Amiata hills, or, more likely, soldiers sent from Siena to besiege the town and take it from the Florentines (both cities apparently captured and recaptured poor Montepulciano for hundreds of years, it's a wonder there's anything left). I could empathize with both pilgrim and soldier, having peered up through sweat-stung eyes at many a Tuscan hill town as I pedaled doggedly upwards.

I should have been pushing on to catch up with the others, but today would probably be the last good riding day of our tour. If I had learned anything from this beautiful country it was to absorb the day's glories as they unfolded. Don't rush through today's ride, I thought, because it is going to be good.

.... And that's how the riding was on our tour of Tuscany.

IN THE BEGINNING:

There were four NBW riders on this expedition: Lee Sproul, seasoned veteran of many European bike tours and originator of the idea; Carleen McOsker, bon vivant and fluent Italian speaker (with appropriate gestures); Bob Paiva, intrepid long-distance rider, navigator, and bike mechanic; and me, Monica Foulkes, avid researcher of details, guides and maps. Our individual riding abilities were compatible, we judged, and we arrived at some common objectives after a bottle of Chianti to get in the right frame of mind ... we wanted to stay in small, old hill towns and villages, planning our itinerary as we went and tailoring our riding to the terrain; to ride on quiet, interesting roads, carrying our own gear; to ride right out from, and back to, Rome airport. I am happy to report that we did all of that, and more.

SOME BASIC STUFF:

Where to stay ...
In Tuscany you really must stay in the hill-towns; moreover, inside the ancient walls. There's really no point in staying outside town because once you get off the bike everything you want to see, and that interesting restaurant you want to discover, is inside those walls. We did not make any hotel reservations, preferring to find accommodation as we went along. Although it was not yet high season, Tuscany was getting busy and just a couple of nights we had to settle for modern, rather characterless hotels, but most nights we managed to find an interesting, small, old hotel (albergo) within the walls of whatever town we ended up in. But any later than May, or with a larger group, reservations are recommended, especially in popular places such as Siena, or small ones such as Montepulciano. All hotels were on a star rating system. The price of a double room (usually including breakfast) varied from a low of 60,000 lire at a (nice) bed-and-breakfast place, about $36 according to the exchange rate at the time, to 170,000 lire (about $100) at a three-star hotel near the airport. We never stayed at a 4-star hotel -- we did try once, only to be rebuffed (we agreed we didn't really want to stay there anyway). Most hotels were not at all perturbed that we arrived with bikes and usually offered a safe place for them; sometimes unlocking storage cellars, and once allowing the bikes in the rooms!

Our route ...
Our somewhat idealistic plan of deciding each day's destination as we went along worked out better than we perhaps deserved. But a larger group might have trouble reaching agreement in time to set off much before noon each day! We made some half-hearted attempts to plan the next day's route over dinner the previous evening, but we were usually too busy translating the menu and eating pasta to put our minds seriously to it. However, during our initial planning we had each proposed some places to visit and found many overlaps (e.g., everyone wanted to go to Siena). I had pasted a small map in the front of my notebook on which I had color-coded suggested towns (pink for "must go", yellow for "worth a detour"), and this really helped us plan our route as we went along.

We rode on each day to a new place, except in Cortona, where we stayed two nights. Factors determining how far we rode each day were: the number of uphill miles, the number of interesting villages and views that we absolutely must stop for, the temperature, and the length of the mid-day meal (allow two hours, even for what you think of as fast food, although you can cut the time if you picnic). Luckily, "riding N miles per day" was not one of our objectives. Some days we rode 25 miles and were absolutely shattered, but some of our short days were the most interesting, now I think of it (and now that my muscle-memory has dimmed). An easier option in Tuscany would be to find a couple of interesting "base" towns in which to deposit the panniers for a few days and thus ride out and back unencumbered. But the trade-off is that you're riding loops and not moving forward on new routes. Either way there are trade-offs.

The following lists our eventual route (kilometers are approximate).
Rome airport - San Severa (56 km, flat, easy first-day ride along the coast).
San Severa - Capodimonte (82 km, flat to rolling, more interesting riding).
Capodimonte - Sovana (42 km, darned hilly, but lovely roads).
Sovana - Saturnia (39 km, hilly, quiet roads).
Saturnia - Castel del Piano (43 km, challenging hills, beautiful roads if not too tired to notice).
Castel del Piano - Montalcino (32 km, very hilly, but beautiful; ride cut short by thunderstorm).
Montalcino - Siena (46 km, flat, easy on fairly busy roads).
Siena - Castelnuovo Berardenga (70 km, rolling hills, beautiful ride).
Castelnuovo - Cortona (62 km, flat and easy until last 5km which were molto steep!). Stayed 2 nights in Cortona; zero miles 2nd day for Carleen, Lee and me, but Bob rode about 120 km into Umbria).
Cortona - Montepulciano (38 km, easy, rolling roads until 10 km climb to Montepulciano).
Montepulciano - Chianciano Terme (40 km, rolling hills)
Chianciano - Torrimpietra (35 km total, rolling before train ride, flat after)
Torrimpietra - Rome airport (23 km, flat ride on coast)

Total for the 12 days was about 600 km for three of us; Bob must have done over 700 km.

Resources ...
I took the Rough Guide's Tuscany and Umbria, which has down-to-earth and reliable information on hotels, restaurants, tourist offices, plus helpful street maps once we were inside the walls. The Rough Guide's Italian Phrase Book was small and absolutely invaluable, with a neat food section for quick reference in restaurants. Resources not taken but pored over in the planning stage included Michelin's Green Guide to Tuscany, and advice gleaned from World Wide Web accounts of bike tours, most of them found through the superb Trento Bike Pages. Carleen and I had read Frances Mayes' books about Tuscany (Carleen even carrying along Bella Tuscany - in hard cover!), and many of the places she wrote about were on our "must see" list.

Maps ...
Bob and I both had Touring Club Italiano maps of Tuscany and Lazio (Kummerly+Frey) with a scale of 1:200000, which proved quite adequate. Kompass maps were also recommended, but we would have had to carry around a lot of them.

Terrain ...
Tuscany is hilly. Not so much killer-hills like Plain Meetinghouse Road (well, apart from one, which we took by mistake) but l-o-n-g, long , winding, switchback climbs that go on for miles. When pushing a fully-loaded bike around you need granny gears, stamina and patience. There are rewards, however; most of our flora and fauna sights came as we slowly wound our way up these climbs. Carleen of course was the champion identifier of flowers, which I dutifully recorded in my journal. Although we kept a cautious lookout for vipers, we didn't see any. Our hilliest riding was in southern Tuscany, south of Siena. In the Chianti region, north of Siena, the hills were more gentle and rolling (or else our muscles were by then Tuscan-toned). We tried to keep to small, un-numbered roads, but learned the hard way to avoid the white-colored roads on the map, which were scenic, but had steeper hills than the yellow roads. We also learned to spot the tiny arrows on these maps, indicating which way a road inclined steeply. Two arrows in a certain direction on a yellow road that switchbacked around like a coiled snake produced head-shaking debates and mid-course corrections.

Roads ...
Road surfaces were good -- much better than RI -- even the small roads. Traffic was very fast, but light, except on a few numbered roads and the dreadful Via Aurelia (Route No.1, north on the coast from the airport towards Tuscany), which we got off as soon as we could. Italian drivers do not move out for bikes; you get two feet and no more (we speculated that those who did give us a wide berth were American tourists); but I didn't feel the traffic was threatening (well, apart from one small contretemps that sent me wobbling onto the verge). However, it's best not to ride two abreast, or out in the middle of the road, because traffic comes up so quickly from the rear that there isn't much time to hustle out of the way, and drivers will use the horn to let you know it. Italians don't seem to have heard of unleaded gas; the traffic fumes, especially from the tourist buses, were noxious.

Weather ...
We had great riding weather the last two weeks of May -- mostly sunny and in the 70's with low humidity (and no mosquitoes, although I think there might be some on the coast). There were a couple of damp mornings (one in particular was very welcome, as we toiled for miles up the foothills around Monte Amiata in southern Tuscany) and one huge thunderstorm in Montalcino, where we prudently cut the ride short and made for the nearest hotel. Tuscany was warming up as we left, however, and those climbs round Monte Amiata would be brutal in the heat of summer (although why anyone would go to Italy in July or August is unclear to me).

Other cyclists ...
We did not see any bike clubs, and few touring riders (all non-Italian). At the weekends we saw riders obviously out for a workout on road bikes (mostly Bianchi), with a few mountain bikes. They were for the most part young, male, riding solo, with a few in two's and three's. They acknowledged us, although seemed somewhat bemused by the loads we were carrying. The only women riders I saw were, for the most part, American.

Gear ...
Lee and Bob took road bikes, Carleen her mountain bike, and I took my hybrid; we all had triples. We had no flats the whole way (roads were quite free of debris) and only minor problems (chains falling off, brakes rubbing, that sort of thing). We each had back panniers and a bar bag on the front. We kept our luggage well under 20 lb, which seemed quite manageable until we got to the long hills, where much of the stuff suddenly didn't seem to be as necessary as we'd thought when we packed it (Carleen mailed superfluous stuff back to herself, unfortunately including her spare shorts). If anyone's interested in a list of bike stuff we took, I'll post something on the NBW Web site. For now, from my own experience, next time I'd take a compass and a better pump (you have to let the air out of your tires for the airlines).

Language and the Italians ...
Many Italians do not speak English, especially in small towns. In any case, it's best to go armed with a few necessary phrases and numbers (you need very large numbers for lire, which come at you in hundreds of thousands so don't think you can get away with knowing 1 through 100). Most of the time we shamelessly depended on Carleen's fluent Italian (well, we were impressed!). But constantly translating for others is very tiring and one should be prepared to try for oneself. My strategy was to stumble into my prepared opening ("Scusi, ma non parlo bene l'Italiano. Parla Inglese, per favore?"). Most often, they said no, they did not speak English. But that was OK, because now it was understood that I was trying (and had a phrasebook), and most Italians were then quite patient and graceful, and unless they spoke quickly I could manage the essentials.

Dealing with Italians, especially bureaucracy such as rail roads and post office, takes time. You will get a NO at first, then some dramatic and involved negotiations (remain calm and patient), but eventually an arrangement will be arrived at. Take Italians as you find them, and I found them to be exceedingly kind.

Money ...
The exchange rate at the time was about 1,700 Italian lire to the dollar. Plastic was accepted at many places (Visa and Mastercard were more acceptable than American Express). In small places be prepared to pay cash. However, even in small places there were easily accessible Bancomat or other ATM machines that were very sophisticated and we had no trouble using our US bank cards to get lire. I was fascinated by the machines that changed money and handled many different currencies. I took some AmEx traveler's checks for security, but didn't ever need to use them and ended up cashing them in on my return to the US, so I wouldn't bother with them again.

Food ...
Need you ask! It was great. We were in Tuscany in spring, and the cherries were in season ... and the beans. Some of the best meals were in little out-of-the-way places (oh, the Villa Miranda's ravioli with sage and butter!). Breakfast was usually included in the room price, and varied from light pastries, coffee and juice, to a rare spread of eggs, meats, breads and yogurt. For the most part, expect it to be light. For lunch picnics, there was usually a nearby shop for "un etto" of prosciutto (just under 4 oz) and some bread, cheese, and fruit. Other days we just chose a handy ristorante or, more cheaply, a pizzeria (which usually offers meals as well as pizza, and I must say that the thin crust pizza is superbly tasty and never soggy) and never had a bad meal. But beware that timing is everything when it comes to eating in Italy. Hotel breakfasts were late for our liking (they don't usually start until 8 or 8:30 am). Do not look for food between 1 and 4 pm (siesta time)! In the evening, if you go to a ristorante at 7:30 PM you'll be the first ones there. Meals cost about the same as in New England, I'd estimate, unless you want to eat American burgers (but why on earth would you want to do that?) Anyway, be aware that such things as Coca Cola are more expensive than the house wine (we had surprisingly good vino rosso), and water is sold by the bottle. The only bad thing I have to say about eating in Italy is that they still love smoking so much that they'll smoke and eat at the same time! Ugh

Negotiating out of and into Rome airport ...
Through the Web I contacted a cyclist who had ridden out of Rome (Fiumicino) airport north into Tuscany, who kindly sent me a marked-up map on how he did it (thanks, Don Genovese!). We rode that little road north of the airport three times (not exactly what we intended, but these things happen) and became quite familiar with it!

Taking bikes on airlines ...
We flew from Boston to Rome via British Airlines, who did not charge for the bike, which counted as one of our two allowed check-in items. We boxed our bikes and assembled them at Fiumicino airport (took about an hour and a half), trashing the boxes at the airport. On our return, Lee and Bob dismantled their bikes and wrapped them up in stout plastic sheeting (allow at least an hour and a half). Carleen and I took off our pedals, wrapped the frame, and handed the bikes over to British Air, who had previously informed us we could do this. It took time and much negotiation, but we eventually prevailed. Much to my relief, the bikes arrived in Rome undamaged and, to my surprise, suffered only minor damage on the return to Boston. Both methods were stressful and required patience. But traveling with a bike is stressful, however you do it, in my experience.

Taking bikes on Italian trains ...
It is a myth that all Italian trains take bikes. However, they have a lot that do, according to the official timetable. Except, for some reason, on Fridays, which we were only to find out when we arrived at Chiusi station on our next-to-last day to take the train to Rome! Negotiations were made, however, and the bikes eventually allowed on board. Officially, the shuttle train from Rome to the airport also does not allow bikes, but we took them on anyway (thereby hangs a tale). So be warned that although it is possible to take bikes on trains, it isn't easy.

Places my bike has rested ...
Against an Etruscan wall; inside a dark 17th century cellar; below the wall of a medieval Medici fortress; under a gnarled olive tree; inside a first-class compartment on the train to Rome (we didn't get to travel in it, just the bikes!); held upright in front of me, balanced on the back wheel, on the airport shuttle train (bike, what bike?)

page revised 6/03/2001