Apericena and Siena

This post is a few days delayed due to not having good internet…

So the Italians have this thing called an apericena, a mixture of the words apertivo (pre-dinner drink) and cena (dinner). Of course we had to try it out! For 8€ per drink (any kind of drink you’d like, whether beer or a cocktail) at Zoe in Florence, you get access to the all-you-can-eat buffet of finger foods. We had no problem making a dinner of it!

Also, we put our new Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on, and those are the toughest damn tires to put on and take off that I’ve ever had to deal with. I broke three tire irons and popped three tubes in the process! Finally, a guy at the bike shop took pity on me and helped me out plus gave me a lesson on how to work with these tires better. Afterwards, he had some words of wisdom: “God will find your weakness and test you in it. Maybe this is your weakness. Don’t prove to me that you can put these tires on; prove it to Him because he’ll test you.” Fair enough, though I think I have plenty of other weaknesses that God could test me on; if changing tires are my penance, I’ll happily take it.

By the way, huge thanks to Florence By Bike for hooking us up with the new tires, some other spare parts, tuning up Steve’s brakes, and fixing my bottom bracket squeaking, even during their busy Giro d’Italia weekend. Really cool guys, and we enjoyed browsing their shop and chatting with other customers. They rent bikes too, if you want to go for a spin in Florence.

Here are some photos from our stay in Florence and Siena.