Strada curiose Strange roads
Beautiful day today - summer is here, it gets up to about 28C every day and I've just done a nice ride on the wheels of steel - 42 miles through the hills of chianti, through Castellina in Chianti and Radda in Chianti. It's pretty hilly round here, in fact within half a mile of our house I have already done over 30 miles an hour and then gone up a 20+% incline which puts my heart near it's max. The ride took just over 3 hours - indicative of how hilly it is around here. The scenery is beautiful and there are exciting little things on the streets at all times. When I moved here I quickly learnt to keep my mouth shut whilst I'm cycling else I get a bonus aerial protein snack. Lizards are constantly running and disappearing into the hedgerows, hooded crows roam the fields and the view from up at Radda, at about 800m altitude is stunning.
http://www.chiantistorico.com/
One famous part of the roads in this region are the strade bianche - the white roads. These are rural unpaved roads, covered in white rubble. They add some great character to the region and also are the location of a famous cycling race - the Strade Bianche
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montepaschi_Strade_Bianche
Annoyingly we found out yesterday that this race actually goes past our house! This year we were up north in the dolomites skiing whilst this was on. Today I went on a little section of the strade bianche and it was a nightmare. The gradient was about 25% and the rubble means that you lose grip. Anyway, in October I will be racing in L'Eroica
http://www.eroica-ciclismo.it/italiano/home.asp
which is the race on the strade bianche - 175km on the strade bianche, and to make it worse and to earn the name L'Eroica (The Heroic) you have to do it on a pre-1983 bike. Stuart has found me one in the UK on freecycle and it should be with me soon. So, this race is long, its on terrible roads, and you have to do it on an old steel bike. Grrr!
Yesterday we were looking at some houses to buy, we drove to Rapale (which we give an amusing homophone name) and we were again struck by the number of street prostitutes. Rapale is way way out in the countryside
And yet, out there, there are lots and lots of prostitutes. Unlike prostitutes in the UK, in Tuscany they seem to just hang out in the countryside, actually not just in Tuscany as we saw some in Sicily too. Anyway, they sit around in small groups, 2 or 3 people, and they are all africans. Very strange that they are not in cities. Strange strange roads.
Pasta is required for tackling these roads. Am just tucking into a nice simple pasta dish, with oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice plus a little tuna and sweetcorn. Simple and nice - good idea Dawn. A much better idea than buying the film "Into the wild" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_wild which I paid for, and was 2h20m of tripe. Based on a real story, about some 24 year old fool who decides he wants to go native for a couple of years, goes to Alaska without knowing much about survival and dies. Surprise surprise. I was worried when Dawn showed it to me as the review "Mesmerising and unforgettable" came from the Daily Star!! Don't watch it!!
On Friday I went to the pub. There's only one pub in Siena, and it's the Irish pub. It's good, serves beer, you can sit outside, shoot the breeze and watch the world go by. I don't go to the pub very often, and don't go into Siena very much, this is a shame. So much of a shame that I initiated some monthly "Discussion Groups" i.e. a payday playday when we can all go to the pub. Anyway, most bars, if such things exist, will serve snacks between 5-8, so a sort of plates of pasta, rice, chips n dips, sun dried tomatoes and olives. In the Irish pub it's pretty good - but it lured me into the delusion that I had eaten. The outcome of this was that I was steaming drunk and tried to leave Siena quite late, maybe 2 am. Anyway, I could not find a raxitaxi - nightmare, I was wandering around (not in the Dutch sense) trying to find a taxi and somehow, I don't really remember how or where it was, as I mentioned I was pretty sloshed, I found a car. He was quite chatty, seemed to know where I lived, although by that time in the morning my Italiano had deserted me so I couldn't be sure. Anyway, got back home and asked him how much, and he said nothing. This confused me and it was only at this point that I realised it wasn't a taxi but just some guy who kindly gave me a lift home. Dawn said that maybe he was cruising for some man loving, but he certainly didn't let on. We had a little battle over 20 bucks, and eventually I lobbed it in the car and legged it. So, it seems that he was just a nice guy who was there and just gave me a lift home. I was in the UK last week, and I am amazed, certainly in Tuscany about how nice everyone is in comparison to the UK. Anyhow, it was strange, strange strange roads.
Ciao for now
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