Rome to Florence: Day 4

We woke up from the Ostelia in Siena on Thursday and went into town to tour until around noon. Check out was at 10am but we were able to store our bags behind a bookshelf at the hostel until we were ready to leave town. Our first stop was at the Bianchi bike shop to see if we could get Andrew’s freehub regreased to stop the slipping issues. It was difficult to convey our issue since we don’t speak Italian, but we were able to describe the problem to the mechanic. Unfortunately, he was not familiar with Chris King products and insisted on using an aerosol oil to lubricate the freehub instead of grease. Even so, his work did help a lot although the problem is not completely solved. After leaving the shop, we spent a couple of hours riding around the town and seeing the typical tourists sights of Siena.

See the sights

Matt in Siena

Once on the road, our legs felt stronger and a good nights sleep helped us push through the continuous rolling hills. We stopped in a small town just outside of Siena to pick up some sauce for our pasta for lunch where we met up with two Dutch riders who started from their hometown and were heading to Rome where their wives would pick them up in just a few days where their freedom would end. They gave some encouragement for us to ride through the Alps at least once during our trip since we were telling them that we were considering a train for the tougher parts.

The Dutch Tourers

After each of the long climbs on our route, we were rewarded with descents down very long windy roads at about 50 km/hr keeping up with most of the traffic. These made the climbs worth all the effort.

We made it to Strada In Chianti, about 10km south of Florence,but it was too late to make it to the next town and find a proper campground so we decided to set up camp near town in a local wooded area. We dropped off some things and cooked dinner back in the park and refilled our water and cleaned up at the fountain. Many towns in Italy have public water fountains where the locals fill up their drinking water, Rome in particular had many fountains throughout the city.

We decided to treat ourselves with some gelato, we asked some locals where to find some in town, it was one of two buisnesses (a café was the other) still open at 9pm. After we finished, we headed back to the woods where we set up camp and called it a night.

One of the views on the road to Florence