Wednesday 24 July 2013
Today is quiet day i.e. no tours or outings. I had soooo much laundry to do so I knew what the majority of my time today would consist of.
We all went for our daily morning stroll to the local ristorante / bar for our morning fix of coffee (& fruit salad if available....). Every morning the chairs outside the ristorante are occupied by a group of local men (it reminded me very much of my Zio Giovanni and his mates who, for as long as I can remember, visit his home every Sunday morning for coffee, vino, food and catch up). The San Baranto local gentlemen spend their day sitting on their chairs watching the groups of bicycle riders who ride up to San Baranto ever day. I have never seen so many Lycra clad men and women in my life. There is a very strong bicycling community here and quite a few professional teams are located in the area. Every day you see groups of professional teams going up / down the mountain followed by their team cars. The roads up to San Baranto from Lamporrecchio and Pistoia have recently been resurfaced and they are the best roads in the area. The reason being is that the UCU Road World Championship (
http://www.toscana2013.it/?lang=en) are being held there in September. As one taxi driver said Italy may be broke but the government can still spend the $$$ on a road and "that is Italy!".
That evening we dined at local ristorante which was walking distance from our accommodation and were joined by Paola and Mario (their son Paolo is married to Andrew's sister Jane). Paola and Mario did a lot of the pre-organising for us and it was great to have them join us for dinner. They are a gorgeous couple and I hope I get to catch up with them in Melbourne when they visit early 2014.
