Grazie Mille Italia ?????♥️

From the very first rose bush my eyes gazed upon, to the first slice of pizza and first scoop of gelato that touched my lips, I fell in LOVE with Italy.  It by far exceeded the expectations and dreams I’ve always had of visiting this country.  The weather couldn’t have been more perfect with 20-35 degrees of Celcius except for that one day we climbed (walked) over the Tuscany hills and it dropped below 10C with a little bit of rain that was refreshing.

The dedicated bike paths with some through old railroad tunnels are a cyclist dream come true.  We saw more cyclist in Italy than we did France, and caught the 11th stage of the Giro d Italia out of Florence.  

The pizzas and pastas were amazing and I truly understand “That’s Amore” now as I would sing the one lyric I know from that song as we were pedaling to our next destination the following day.  Fun Fact: you can’t order pizza for lunch or on Mondays for some reason.  Our favorite pizzas to order were Quatro Formaggi and Prosciutto e Funghi.  Tiramisù, Pancotta, and Cannolis were our desserts of choice after a long day of riding and dinner.

Cycling through the five fishing villages of Cinque Terre was by far the biggest highlight of Italy for me.  Most people hike between the villages or take day train trips.  It was a pure joy to spend two nights and three days in this picturesque area even with all the elevation that we are so conditioned for now….a 6 to 8 percent grade seems like nothing anymore.   Florence was beautiful as we took 4 rest days to explore with one of then being a round trip day trip by train to Siena where we just missed the Obama’s.  We also had some great food tips in Florence from our new friend Megan that we met in Portugal on one of the free walking tours we took.  Venice was amazing even with the overpopulation of tourist that we did a great job of avoiding by walking down little alley ways and going over to the park while they all stayed in St. Mark’s Square.  We also met up with a fellow ALC (AIDS/LifeCycle) friend Matteo that rode with us one day to our destination in Venice.  As in the other parts of Western Europe, we enjoyed when we were out in the country side and away from all the tourist traps.  Yes we are tourist as well and you have to see all these places such as the leaning tower of Pisa…..but do you have to take a picture with with your hands acting like you are pushing it back upright…..we think not.  We glanced at David’s genitals and butt, and sighed at the Bridge of Sighs where everyone was taking a selfie.  

We are looking forward to a slower pace in Eastern Europe and hopefully spending a month in Croatia as we wait for our Schengen Visa to renew before we explore Germany and Greece in the Fall.  

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Italy in no particular order.  Are you following me on Instagram yet?  scubastevecyclist