Bella Toscana

I woke up early to get a good start on the day. O.K., truthfully, the hostel requires you to be out by 9:00 so I had no choice. Anyway, I was happy to be awake to take in the view of the valley below Perugia from the back patio of the hostel. I could tell already that today would be another good one. The streets were quiet as I walked through town, and people were just starting to set up the tents again for the chocolate fair. I kind of wanted to stay and see it but I was more interested in getting on the road. I rode down the hill and out of Perugia onto a small country road for just a few miles before I spotted an interesting looking city topping a hill called Cortona. I ascended the switchbacked road up the hill until I reached the top and found an opening in the city walls. I left the bike there and went inside to have a look around. There were a few tourists around so the place is no secret, but I liked it. It was fairly quiet and had a nice feel to it. It's difficult to describe, but many of these small hill towns have a similar vibe, it's very relaxing. I had a cornetto and some juice and talked to the guy at the bar a bit. He was English and now lived in this tiny little town. I always find it amazing how people can find such small towns in far away places and decide to live there. Maybe he stumbled on it like I did and met some nice Italian girl and just stayed, who knows? Hasn't happened to me yet but if someday you notice I'm not around, you'll know what happened.

Anyway, Cortona was nice, and when I got back to the bike I decided to ride around the area a bit. The guy at the bar told me I should see a church that was located above the city so I took the little road that went up there. It was neat, but the views around it were even better. It felt good to be up in the hills and I even fooled around on a dirt road a bit which was fun. There were a few other houses and even a place that looked like a convent or something all scattered around in the trees, it was all very tranquil.

I got back on the main road for a few minutes until I spotted a small castle sitting all alone on a tiny hill. Not sure what it was but I can't seem to pass a castle without stopping, so I rode up to get a closer look. It was closed up and there seemed to be nobody around, despite the small car parked at the entrance, so I just walked around it, stopping to pick an olive from a tree. Some advice, never eat olives off the tree, they're incredibly sour and taste very bad. Maybe it just wasn't ready to be picked yet, but I'll never do that again.

Despite all the stopping, I did have a destination in mind for the day, and that was a town called Arezzo. I wanted to go there because my favorite Italian movie was filmed there, "Life is Beautiful". When I found it, it wasn't quite what I expected. It seemed like a fairly modern (by Italian standards) city. I followed the signs, and with a little help from a lady on a scooter I found the historic center. I parked the bike and wandered around on foot for a while. I managed to find the main square where many scenes from the movie were made.

It was cool to see, but the town itself didn't do too much for me, so after taking a break for some pizza I moved on towards my next destination, San Gimignano.

Here's where it got really fun for me. I was now smack in the center of Tuscany and riding through beautiful mountains and valleys on incredible winding roads the entire way. I was roughly following my map, but sometimes I would just take a road because it looked good or I because I saw a castle sticking up through the trees in that direction. It was some of the best riding I have ever done, the roads, the scenery, few cars around, nice weather, fun bike, all blending together perfectly. I had so much fun riding that at times I was laughing out loud in my helmet, it was fantastic.

At the end of that joyride was the town of San Gimignano (pronounced gee-meen-yano, like filet mignon steak). I was greeted with a view of a town that looked like a tiny mid-evil Manhattan. The city is famous for it's towers, lots of old stone towers remaining from around the 12th century. I think there are only about a dozen good examples left, but back in the day there were around 100, each built by a different family that wanted to out-do the next family by having the biggest one, I guess nothing changes. I rode up the hill and there was a small open area with parking right outside the city wall, so I left the bike and saw the town on foot. The first thing I noticed after all the towers was all the tourists. The town is pretty well known but I was still surprised to see so many people there in October. Since I don't care too much for crowds of tourists, and because it was starting to get late in the day, I just grabbed a quick gelato and headed out.

About 30 minutes down the road I spotted another interesting fortified city and just had to have a look. It was called Monteriggioni and it seemed to be a bit farther off the tourist map than San Gimignano. When I walked through the main gate I was greeted by a quiet open square with a few locals hanging out and maybe a couple tourists, it was very peaceful atmosphere. The entire space within the walls was maybe a little larger than a football field, but I'll bet that to many of the locals it was the entire world. The sun was going down as I watched an old lady walking slowly past a church. Across the square somebody was yelling at somebody else to go back to work in a small shop, but he said it was so and so's birthday and they were having a beer instead. People were sitting in chairs with their backs to the stone buildings doing nothing much at all. There was an old woman sitting facing her rough but strong looking old husband, holding his hands....and clipping his fingernails. All surrounded by comforting stone walls, walls that have kept them all safe and sound for so many years. It was all very quaint. Standing there it's almost easy to forget that there is anything outside the walls.

I watched the tramonto, sunset, from the back gate of the town, and then it was all about getting back to Perugia. I had ridden away from Perugia all day, so unfortunately I was pretty far away and not really sure how long it would take to get back...in the dark, on new roads. I was very close to a larger city that I have also been longing to see called Siena, but there was no time to stop. If I hadn't reserved the hostel in Perugia for that night and brought my backpack with me I could have just stayed the night in Siena, which was sounding like a really good idea. Instead, I wasted about a half hour trying to decipher more incomprehensible Italian road signs just to get out of Siena, followed by spending about an hour and a half in the cold flying down the dark autostrada, hoping I was going the right direction, wishing I was there already, and just kicking myself the whole way. I really hate when that happens, but what can you do? I finally arrived in Perugia around 8:00 or so, cold and hungry, but still excited from the day I had. For me there's nothing better than spending the entire day riding, and this had been one of the best days yet.