Florence to Rome

We left Florence and headed to San Gimignano, a medieval hill town best known for its towers. Fourteen towers remain out of an original seventy-two towers of one-upsmanship, with each family trying to outdo its neighbours in a skyward show of wealth and prestige. A number of people we had spoken to raved about its beauty, but also cautioned us about the hills we'd have to ride to get there. And sure enough, the ride was filled with glorious swooping downhills where we regretted every metre lost, and painfully slow uphill grinds where we wondered why a road was ever installed at such a dramatic grade. We're very glad we didn't do this trip in reverse by starting in Rome and hitting these hills early, and we are very appreciative of the conditioning we've developed over the past few weeks! The views also made all the uphill worthwhile.

We rolled into San Gimignano and dropped our bags off at our 13th century palazzo accommodations, then headed out to… climb some more, up the tallest tower in town. We also explored the palazzo museum below, and the gelateria of the world gelato champion from 2006-2009 (saffron & pine nuts and Gorgonzola & pear were two standouts). Dinner was at a delicious local restaurant that had artichokes on the walls and bundles of wheat hanging from the ceiling.

Panoramic view from the top of the tower

The view coming into San Gimignano

Clockwise from top: saffron with pine nut, Vernaccia white wine, Champelmo (champagne and grapefruit), and Gorgonzola with pear

The next day we saw 12th century religious art and wandered through the city, before we headed on towards Siena. The route was slightly hilly and very lovely, and we did lunch (local pasta with wild boar) at a restaurant recommended by our host in Florence. We stopped early that afternoon outside Siena to make camp near the road, and had a leisurely evening that included Joel seeing a wild boar or two!

We rolled into Siena early the next day, checked into our hostel, and went to see the city. And there is much to see, especially from high up! We took a tour through the upper galleries inside the zebra-striped cathedral, admired the mosaic floors and illuminated manuscripts inside, then walked down to the cathedral's crypts, then back up several flights of stairs to the viewpoint that would have been the cathedral's new entrance if the planned expansion had been completed in the 15th century (they planned on turning the nave into the transept, aka taking a church shaped like a cross and extending the short section so it became the long section of the cross and the current long section became the short section of the cross). Unfortunately for the renovation planners, the plague that halved the population of the city, war with the Medicis in Florence, and insufficiently-stable foundations (you get a different answer depending on who you ask) ruined their plans and only a few walls were built including the grand front entrance, which now leads into a parking lot.

View of the cathedral from the would-be entrance. We walked around the upper galleries. Note the gold ornament on top of the duomo…

View of the would-be entrance from the upper galleries of the cathedral.

The last tower we climbed was the bell tower of the Palazzo Pubblico, or the seat of government. The frescoes here were interestingly different, depicting good government in addition to the usual religious iconography. From the tower we drank in the panoramic views of the city square and terra cotta roofs beneath us, and the rolling hills further out as we tried to guess at which route we'd take out of town.

View of the Palazzo Pubblico tower from the upper galleries of the cathedral.

View of the Piazza del Campo from the top of the Palazzo Pubblico tower.

Our cycling time was winding down before we were due in Rome, and we had to choose between turning to the coast and booting it 240 kilometres there, or turning further inland, meandering through the lush hills of Tuscany, and catching a train to Rome. We'd seen a lot of the coast and we love the Tuscan scenery (and wine), so it wasn't a hard choice! The next day, we set our GPS to Montepulciano and began meandering through jaw-dropping view after jaw-dropping view. It's difficult to travel fast across this country by bike because the hills take your literal and metaphorical breath away.

We finally stopped in Asciano for dinner, where it proved to be impossible to find pasta at 6 pm so we settled for meats, cheeses, and various pickled and delicious vegetables. We left a bit too late and found ourselves racing to find somewhere to wild camp before the sun set. We chose a secluded spot in a forest off the highway but after we set up camp, we found out that the neighbouring property had a very irate dog that barked at us, at traffic, and at the world. The night's harmonic counterpoint was provided by what we could only guess was a wild pig being squeezed, so it wasn't the most sleep-inducing animal symphony we've had… but after ten minutes on the road the next morning, we were happy again and delighted by the scenery.

We spent our first night in Montepulciano finishing off some of the food we've been carrying for far too long, and enjoying the wood-burning fireplace in our Airbnb while a storm blew by. The next day we climbed up the volcanic crag to Montepulciano proper, and explored through some of the wineries which let you roam freely through their cellars. We saw a "wine cathedral" built in the 1500s and still in use today (it also served  as a bomb shelter for 100 families durning World War II). We saw enormous barrels aging for the 2-4 years required for the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano denomination; bottles that have been aging since the 1970s; Etruscan tombs from 500 BCE, and sea fossils. This was the steepest town we visited; we would walk into a winery at street level, descend several stories into its vaulted-ceilinged cellar, and walk out of the cellar at another street level. It's humbling to think that this town was once at the bottom of a sea!

We were wandering through the streets when we heard interesting sounds, so went to investigate. We found a third-generation coppersmith at work, and he invited us into his shop after querying us to make sure we had a "grand'amore", or great love (we sure do!). We got to see the raw copper ingots he starts with, the pedal-powered blower forge he uses to heat them, the tools from his father and grandfather that he works with, and learned that he had made the gold-plated copper ornament on top of the cathedral in Siena, which we had seen three days earlier! He finished off the tour by making a copper memento of Montepulciano for us, which marks our anniversary date and predicts that we’ll have four babies — he told us to get “frisky frisky” to make sure of it!

We meandered up and down the streets, then brought fresh pasta and pesto home for dinner. The next day we looked at routes to the train station and decided to skip the route through the valley with 80 metres of elevation gain (me: “Pfft, that’s so simple for us”) in favour of the scenic route through the top of the hills (I certainly ate those words from earlier, as we gained 494 metres before lunch). We flew down from the top of the hills and into the valley, and caught the train for a two-hour trip to Rome, which would have taken us at least two days to ride. Now we run around Rome before returning home!

Foods of note:

• ​Gelato! Saffron and pine nut, ginger raspberry, ricotta and pear, gorgonzola and pear, vernaccia wine, dark chocolate and Grand Marnier, peach, espresso, and more!
• Pasta with wild boar, beet and turnip and parmesan layered and roasted, and limoncello in San Gimignano.
• Several delicious meals of cured meats (notably the local Cinta Senese pork), cheeses (pecorino especially), and vegetables.
• Delicious craft beer and excellent burgers (rare beef, and chicken and pistachio curry) in Siena.