Chiavari to Florence

Just as all good things must come to an end, so too did we need to come down from the high that was staying at the castle. Luckily for us, the work we did in cycling up to the castle was handsomely rewarded with a downhill ride to the coast! (With frequent stops to cool off our disc brakes.)

It was slightly surreal cycling through towns we had passed through by train earlier that week, but soon we took a different course and started riding up… and up… and up, with frequent breaks dictated by the amount of sun and hill grade we were experiencing. 2.5 L each of water later, we reached the highest peak we’ve climbed so far: 540 m.

Just after we passed that high point we got a thumbs-up from a guy on a Vespa, which hasn’t been too unusual for us this trip. We waved back, and then cut across the road to get a photo. When we turned back, we saw that he had stopped and was approaching. He turned out to be a friendly Australian who understands cycle tourists and made us a tempting offer: If we rode another 30km we could stay at a villa he is staying in and could have a shower!  It turns out he is part of a crew for a luxury yacht, and they are currently land-based as the boat was being rebuilt in the dockyard nearby. So, they were staying at an incredible villa that belonged to a famous Italian architect. Needless to say, we changed our course and kicked it into high gear at 5pm to make it there that evening!

That motivation carried us down all the uphill we had gained, and into the valley behind the Cinque Terre. We arrived at the villa just before sunset and were invited to share their for a South African braai (like a barbeque, but better).  We had a fantastic evening visiting with everyone, sharing stories and revelling in their generous hospitality.

The next morning we visited some more and then headed out to La Spezia and the Gulf of Poets. La Spezia is a major shipping town, and has the largest naval base in Italy; the Amalfi coast hosts stunning views: sheer cliffs, trees draped over the road, gorgeous blue water.

After a lunch looking out over the sea, late afternoon had us climbing some more at a very steep grade. As we finally crested the hill, we were treated to new scenery ahead: gorgeous marble-streaked mountains rolling into lush cropland plains below, reminiscent of Alberta.

Heather: We are so fortunate to be here!
​Joel: I agree. And I’m so glad you feel fortunate after climbing up that hill!
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The well-earned downhill was well enjoyed as we made our way down from the winding coast to the narrow plain between the mountains and the sea.

We spent the night in a campground near Carrara, then continued the next morning through towns on the plain between mountains and coast under an overcast sky before heading inland towards Lucca. We’ve been incredibly fortunate in terms of weather so far and had been trying to outrun the rain, but it finally caught us as we stopped for lunch and we rode the final hour into Lucca under a steady drizzle. The rain lasted just long enough for us to check into our B&B, then was kind enough to stop just before we headed iout to see the old city. 

Lucca was a fiercely independent medieval republic which competed with Genoa, Pisa, and Florence for trade and regional dominance. As part of their strategy, they built massive walls which are largely intact today since they were not bombed during World War II. No longer needed for defence, the walls now contain gardens and a 4 km cycling and walking path that circumnavigates the entire old city. We rode our bikes along the top of the wall marvelling at the single-mindedness of the citizens which was required to complete the walls over several generations. The next day we headed in early to climb up the tall tower in town to enjoy the panoramic vista and the trees growing at the top of the tower.

Then we headed further through Tuscany. The scenery is indeed as gorgeous as everyone says, with the rolling hills covered with vineyards and olive groves, interspersed with a few picturesque towns and houses. As dusk set we found a small campsite just off the secondary highway, which was great in every respect except for all the thorns. (It worked well for us anyway, we just got somewhat stabbed as we set up camp.) The next morning headed to Florence to meet parents, but got somewhat delayed when we realized that one of the sides of my front rack had cracked. We cobbled it back together with a hose clamp and figured it could probably limp along to the end of the trip.

We finally met up with parents and headed in to see the Uffizi gallery. I had seen it nine years ago but hadn’t remembered much beyond “ooh, pretty art”, and this was Joel’s first visit. Thanks to his father Andrew’s incredible memory and previous experiences leading kids on tours of the gallery, we learned a lot more about the context of the works and were able to see the transformation of the artistic ideals from medieval church-centred art to the rediscovery of Greco-Roman works and the kickoff of the Renaissance. It was also quite brain-bending to realize that the Greco-Roman statues which inspired the Renaissance artists were already a thousand years old when they were ‘re-discovered’. The medieval art we saw is closer in time to today than it is to those statues.

The next day we went through the Accademia and saw Michelangelo’s David and learned how sculpture technology had later developed plaster castings and used geometric advances to make sculptures at any scale. We explored markets and ate incredible fresh pasta, saw the private chapel of the Medici family (all walls and floors done in inlaid stone, so the colours will never fade), and the Baptistry of the cathedral (lined with Byzantine-style mosaic work depicting heaven and hell; since this was the church Dante attended, the mosaics likely informed his views on the afterlife which in turn influenced the Christian world for centuries). We then climbed up the 463 steps to the top of the cathedral’s dome (the Duomo) to drink in incredible views of the city.

Mosaics in the Baptistry

Mosaics of Hell in the Baptistry

Frescoes in the Duomo

Looking down from the Duomo

We got the Firenze Card, which gives you access to 72 museums in Florence for 72 hours. This also turns out to be access to 72 washrooms in the city, so we did a very speedy run-through of the museum of the work done on the cathedral and Duomo.

Our parents left early the next morning, and we brought my racks to a welder a couple blocks away. He did a speedy repair on my front rack and the rear rack which had cracked on our way into Italy, and we continued on to the Pitti Palace (the palace the Medicis moved into when their old palace was too narrow). We gawked at the beauty and the wealth displayed there, and saw the changing tastes across generations: table tops done entirely in inlaid stone, walls practically collaged with paintings, ceilings entirely frescoed, jewels, velvet walls, intricate furniture, and tapestries. After saturating on that, we lost ourselves in the vast gardens and napped in the sun, near larger-than-life statues and enormous obelisks.

Before coming here, we hadn’t appreciated how deeply the Medicis had shaped Florence and the Western world. Many iconic works of Renaissance art: funded by the Medicis. Florence’s scientific academy founded by Galileo, which predates the Royal Academy in London: funded by the Medicis. The iconic Duomo of the cathedral: funded by the Medicis. They were truly tyrants with taste, and they shaped the world to their liking.

We ran through the Galileo museum and saw many tools he invented in his pursuit of knowledge (funded by the Medicis): telescopes for space, tools to measure the effects of gravity, one tool for military and civilian cartography calculations, and  preliminary devices to measure temperature.

After seeing all the gorgeous stone work in the Medici palace and chapel, we knew we had to visit the museum of stone art (pietre dure) (initially funded by the Medicis). This Florentine art form makes “painting for eternity” using stone inlay, and the results are truly mesmerizing. It was incredible to see the degree of detail at which they worked, as well as the paintings reproduced in stone, and the tools they used to create it all. We also visited a shop and saw a master at work on a stone painting.

Original painting

Stone painting

Detail on stone painting

Our last two galleries in Florence were the Bargello, which houses sculptures, weapons, and more paintings, and the Palazzo Vecchio. The Palazzo Vecchio was the palace deemed too narrow by the Medicis, but it does have a modest number (compared to the Pitti Palace) of extraordinarily frescoed rooms.

Next, we ride through Tuscany (so hilly! So picturesque!), and then onwards towards Rome!

Foods of note

• Braai: many meats grilled over charcoal. We learned the many rules for the boat that they had been teaching a new crew member, like how you must always have a dop (drink) in hand, and how you must always keep your shammy moist.
• Gatta Ci Cova: our parents went to Lucca a few days before we did, and recommended this place to us based on its quirky decor (one table had swings for seats) and delicious food. We ordered and delighted in the smoked eggplant ravioli, with the entire dish served under a glass dome filled with smoke; bacon-wrapped rabbit stuffed with apple; beef with strawberries and ginger; tender tuna.
• Trattoria Sabatino: Authentic and cheap, with a variety of delicious home-cooked food.
• Pear and gorgonzola ravioli
• Aperol spritz is the drink of choice in Italy, and many bars have an offer where you order a spritz and eat a buffet appetizers dinner.
• Gelato: apricot, dark chocolate, pistachio, cinnamon, Chianti, strawberry-ginger, red orange, cones fresh from the oven.

[Editor's note: an earlier version claimed we went through the Amalfi coast. Sadly, we have not yet mastered instantaneous transportation, and instead we went through the Gulf of Poets. The Amalfi coast will have to be for another visit!]