5 am we were up and packing to head off to Lucca train station for the first of two train trips today.

It was only a 22 minute trip to Viareggio, on the Mediterranean coast. I had contemplated us riding the 22 km but given the time of day and connection to Milan, we took the easier option.

There were a flight of stairs involved in getting to our platform, and lucky Tony is strong enough to carry both loaded bikes up.

We had seats allocated in carriage four, and put the bikes there, but two blokes sitting nearby indicated we should move the bikes to carriage three. They had hanging rails there, and Tony removed our heavy rear panniers to protect the front wheels taking all the weight.

The trip followed the Mediterranean coastline via La Spezia to Genoa, lots of scenic coastline and also tunnels through the hills.

The train was packed full from Genoa and a lovely young bloke from Germany who was concluding a solo two month cycle tour sat with us, and we shared our adventures with each other.

Milan train station was super busy. People pushing and shoving to get off the train, pushed passed our bikes impatiently.

Once we escaped the station, the city streets were just as bad.

Our route took us to the famous duomo, the third largest church in Europe. How we got there in one piece is pure luck.

Red lights seems to be the new green in Milan. A seriously crazy city to cycle in. We have ridden through London and Paris without anywhere near the same hassles and pressure as Milan.

Castello Sforzesco was the first of sight we rode past. Built in the 15th century by the then Duke of Milan on the site of a 14th century fortification. It was one of the largest citadels in Europe after additional renovations and extensions in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Today is a museum.

Finally we made it to the Duomo di Milano, the seat of the Archbishop of Milan.

Taking six centuries to construct, with final details completed in 1965, it is the largest cathedral in Italy ( St Peter’s basilica in Vatican City is larger, but the Vatican is a sovereign state, the smallest country in the world).

I would really like to have gone inside, but the queues were very long. A few days in Milan would be warranted on a hop on, hop off bus I think plus a pre booked tour! Another day.

We were very hungry. Very hungry not having consumed any food since about 6 pm the night before. We were up to a 19 hour or so fast!

We presumed we would grab food at the railway station, but nothing available at either bar chocolate bars from a vending machine.

So we were keen to find somewhere a bit quieter to sit down, and about 7 km later we were ‘in the burbs’, and found a Japanese restaurant, with an outdoor area where we could park our bikes next to us.

Milan’s canals were first developed in the 12th century to transport goods and defend the town. The canal network was expanded and eventually linked to the Italian lakes and Switzerland, and the Adriatic Sea to the south. Many canals were built over during the 20th century for reasons of hygiene and mobility.

In picking a route to Pavia, I selected one of the canals that went into Pavia, Naviglio Pavese. It started off nicely, well formed pathways.

We came to a roadblock on the path and it was dang! The nearby road was super busy. We consulted our maps and a lycra clad road cyclist stopped and checked where we were headed, offering to show us a way around the roadblock.

We followed him for a few km and thanked him once we were back on the path and he flew off at circa 30 kmh.

Maybe 10 km further on we came to this mess. At this point, we agreed to give it a crack as that is not so bad. However we regretted our decision. About one km on and we were walking our bikes around huge puddles that consumed the entire width.

Then we arrived at the excavator, totally blocking the way, plus huge excavations. Annoyingly we had to retrace our steps through the mud, back to the road.

By this time our shoe cleats were mud clogged necessitating a solid shoe cleaning exercise.

Down the busy road for maybe 5-7 km we were eventually able to rejoin the quieter canal pathway. They are upgrading the path and resealing and we benefited from a nice surface.

We arrived in Pavia, our overnight destination. A short and flat ride of 48 km.

Pavia is build on the banks of the Ticino River, near its confluence with the Po (we rode through the Po delta some ten days ago). It has a population of around 75,000, with a significant ancient history. There is a University that was established in 1361 and still runs today.

After settling into our accomodation on the southern side of the bridge, we headed back across the bridge on foot to check out the old sites, and find more food!

The statue of the laundress represents the history where the laundresses once used to wash their clothes in the river.

The streets are quite wide, and well paved.

We headed to yet another duomo, the obvious sights as they are usually the tallest structures in each town, with a significant history and extraordinary architecture.

Construction commenced in 1488, on the site of two medieval churches.

The central dome has an octagonal plan and is 97m high, weighing 20,000 tonnes. It is the third largest dome in Italy.

The penultimate day awaits. One more day.

Thanks for reading 😊❣️

North of Lucca is the Serchio River valley, features the Apuan Alps to the east, the Gargagnana Mountains to the west. The devil lingers nearby.

Ponte del Diavolo bridge – legend has it that the Devil constructed the bridge in exchange for the first soul to cross it. The villagers sent a dog.

We decided to do a ride out to Devil’s bridge on an active recovery day.

But firstly we needed to solve a travel issue I had not been able to do from home with trip planning.

With airfares booked we had time parameters. In deciding to ride to Elba Island and spend three nights there, that effectively meant we could not do a perfect loop ride.

So we needed a train to join the dots from Lucca to Milan.

I have caught Italian trains before, with a bike. Roma to Orvieto and Orbotello to Roma. No issues.

Online I just could not book this required train trip. Some trains do not take bikes also eliminating the high speed route via Florence.

Anyhow, nice young lady at the Lucca station tried seven different combinations to get us on a train, with bikes, and failed.

My stress levels were getting pretty high, feeling quite anxious by now.

She described it as “weird” and did a system shut down and reboot. Voila!

She was able to book us on the one I had originally wanted to Viareggio then Milan! Only one train station change.

I realised I was shaking so we went and found some colazione (breakfast) and espresso.

We then headed off via the walls, 5at are so wide you can ride along them on perfectly sealed pathways.

Some view from the wall before we exited from a northern porte.

The pathway we followed for about 10 km was gravel of various compaction levels. Nice to be away from cars. We then ended up on road for the rest of the ride to the bridge.

There is the first sight of the Devil’s bridge. There is no way you can ride up it. As I pushed my bike, the angle peaked at 19.8%. The cobbles were particularly difficult to walk on.

Ponte della Maddalena was a vital river crossing on the Via Francigena, an early medieval road to Rome, an important medieval pilgrimage route.

It was constructed around 1080.

We had refreshments nearby then headed off back to Lucca where we did some more riding on the wall.

Back on the wall, this is a good example of where other wall structures crossed.

One of my favourite views today summing up Lucca, history and Tuscan hills.

After grabbing an earlier dinner, we came across crowds of people, police, barriers and banners. We had no idea what was happening but Miglia 1000 was featuring everywhere, so we googled it.

It is billed as the world’s most beautiful car event, and Lucca was about to be inundated with 110 Ferrari’s that were participating.

I think it is a bit like Tasmania’s Targa event but with a lot more Ferrari’s. Tony loved it, saying there were car models passing by he’d never seen before.

However before the cars arrived, there was lots of time to kill. I think we waited close on two hours.

Waiting for the cars, we walked further down the road, away from the crowds, closer to our exit porte through the wall. It was better as there were less people, and shade available.

Finally the cars started arriving, crossing a number of checkpoints. Tony picked these two out for the blog.

Quite the car show Lucca, Enzo Ferrari would have been very happy with 110 Ferrari’s in one place.

Another day done, only a few days ride left before we commence our long journey home.

Thanks for reading 😊❣️

Blue skies, an amazing breakfast spread and we were ready to roll and head to Lucca for two nights, 96 km away.

Our accomodation is a building over four levels, meanders around and has another area that then climbs up to a roof top cafe, another level up to a back yard exit and where our bikes were stored.

You can imagine what Tony said when the key we were given did not fit the padlock and he needed to go to reception….on the ground floor.

On our way I had to walk two sections to get out, up steep cobbles, and down steep cobbles. Eventually after a km we were free riding, downhill.

Some views as we headed down the slopes.

Once on the valley floor, our route took lots of turns. At one corner this was advertised. Looks like an interesting theatre.

This is the same corner, just further to the right. Bottom right promotion may be more your thing. Quite the offering 😊

Quite a pleasant ride, roads were busy at times, particularly in towns. Other times, we rode through, or skirted around quiet villages. The temperature was getting hot, and there was a headwind present, providing cooling effect.

10 km or so before Pisa we rode sections of this cycle way. It started off ok, this section well compacted white gravel. That is as good as it got though. Most of it was single track on a poorly maintained variety of surfaces. However, it was quiet and free of traffic.

Pisa, an interesting city. The waterside buildings all have wooden frame structures attached around windows to accentuate features. Looks like a fairly recent addition. You can see in the photos if you expand them. The frames are all white and varying shapes and sizes.

Arriving at the spot where all the tourists flock in Pisa we were amused by the tourists and the various poses they aim for with the famous leaning tower, Torre pendente as it is locally known, with all the direction signs labelled as such.

Torre pendente is the bell tower for Pisa Cathedral, located close by. The angle of the lean is quite significant and disturbing really. If it was our house it would likely be condemned, but this has had extra engineering works and safe for tourists to enter, so they say.

We did not hang around very long in this part of Pisa, pushing our bikes through the crowds, we were keen to keep moving.

There was the usual assortment of junky souvenirs to be purchased, plus those blokes who sell ‘genuine’ well known brand watches!

Surviving Pisa intact, we were back on the open road, and some five km or so down the road found refreshment and shade at a petrol station that had a cafe/bar and umbrellas!

We headed onto another bike path, this one named Puccini. It was also rough and rugged and slower going but we enjoyed the no car element.

Some of the sights from the path.

Our accomodation in Lucca is just outside the stone walls. After our usual showering and laundering we wandered through Porta san Pietro to the old town.

Initial impressions are the the town has more space than say Siena or Volterra, which are very compact.

There are a nice range of older buildings but around them was much construction activity. There is an area with a huge stage and this is why. There are a few concerts there I would have been interested in and looks like Ed was recently in town.

Towers are very popular.

We headed towards the duomo.

Construction commenced on the duomo in 1063. The great apse with the tall columns remain, with the nave and transepts rebuilt in the 14th century.

My interest inside these very old churches are the ceilings. The duomo has incredibly high ceilings and gothic arches. How on earth did they manage that back then, let alone the magnificent art work so very high up.

We had a lovely dinner in the town before retiring and contemplating tomorrow.

Today’s route and fairly flat day, bar one 2 km 5.7% climb.

Thanks for reading 😊❣️

Up early to finalise our packing, dressing, and ride to Portoferraio for an 8 am ferry. Only a 10 km ride, and the road was fairly quiet until we hit the capital.

Nice view on the outskirts, looking up at Fortezza dell Volterraio.

Arriving at the port and having our tickets checked, the guy offered us the opportunity of hopping on an earlier ferry that was just docking. Absolutely, as that would give us an extra hour in Volterra, today’s destination.

The ferry was fairly quiet, with less than a third of the vehicle deck used. Massive trucks were on board, dwarfing me as I stood there tying my bike up to the side rails.

We headed up to the top deck which was fairly cool once the ferry got moving.

Some last views of Elba, an absolute gem of this trip.

Moby is another ferry company. All their ferries are brightly decorated.

We watched this seagull hop on board and it sat there for 2/3 of the crossing and then flew off back towards Elba.

From our route map below you can see there was a longer straight stretch adjacent to the Mediterranean. Riding you could not see the sea as there is a strip of vegetation maintained with plenty of parking.

Interestingly EasyPark is all over Italy and you need a ticket here, despite no towns or villages for many km.

Did cross the vegetation to look at this section of beach though.

A nice vineyard entrance gave us a reprieve for a short break.

After 40 km of flat, headwind riding we turned to the north east. Hills grew closer.

The day was still overcast but becoming humid as there had been a little rain. Only sprinkles for us, but the rain had obviously been through before us as the road was wet in many places.

We had a few shorter climbs and up the heat was turning up as we started sweating more. The sun still had not quite managed to poke its head out.

Finally our destination was in view. Volterra. Accomodation always seems to be at the top of a hill. In this case, a 10 km climb, 450 metres ascent. The first few km were very gentle, pushing the final 7 km to around 5.5% average.

The climbing graph. The climb shows obviously.

A few photos during the climb. By now the sun was out, it was 32C, humid as we were drinking water frequently to try and stay hydrated.

The road was busy and you could guarantee the car behind you would want to pass on the right hand, steeper bend meaning you could not go out wider to a less steep incline.

Shade was non existent as it was very open. The best relief came when one of the big buses descended, generating a breeze as it passed.

The actual town starts about 2 km before the top of the climb. The last 500 metres was difficult as there was a tricky junction to give way, cross and climb steeply.

It was a huge relief to make the fairly flat, cobbled main street and I had indicated I wanted to stop at the very first gelato sign.

We both had two scoops of limone gelati! It was soooo nice.

We found our accomodation easily but were quite surprised. It is a family run albergo and as we took luggage off the bike it disappeared and was immediately transported to our room, up three flights of stairs!

We took our bikes up the street, around the corner, up a very steep cobbled climb to the allotted spot where they said someone would meet us. It was their backyard and here was a young lad offering to take our bikes the last 10 metres, then an older man taking control of our bikes. We were like….what the heck? Who are these people? No one has that kind of interest in our bikes at accomodation!

The older man is the family patriarch, he has proudly built an amazing bike box with retractable roof, lockable doors, adjacent to their rooftop cafe.

We have never had any accomodation do this for our bike luggage or bikes before and we walked down about three flights of stairs empty handed to our room.

If in Volterra, come to Albergo Etruria, run by the Moretti family.

We spent a few hours walking around the town inside the old walls. The centre was transformed by the Etruscan’s in the 9th century.

Many current buildings seem to be from the 12-14th century.

Alabaster shops are frequent, as it is a local speciality. I watched one guy carving alabaster, no protection over his mouth or nose and wonder about alabaster dust and the lungs,

Photos from our meanderings.

There are many narrow laneways.

Wonderful old buildings and churches.

Colourful flags

Colourful pasta

The old Roman theatre and baths were rediscovered in the 1950’s when excavations started for a sports field. There was not enough money available for an archaeological excavation so patients were used from a local psychiatric hospital to uncover the 3,500 seat auditorium and baths.

Originally constructed in the late first century, the theatre is regarded as one of the best remaining in Italy. There were three men busy with slashers working and I think when finished, the definition will be greater again.

Walking up and around the old Medici fortress, we only got so far…

Some distant views from the walls.

Dinner time

Ciao ciao, thanks for reading, another day in our adventures. 93 km and over 900 metres climbing. 😊❣️

With two full riding days available on Elba Island, we had two routes mapped. One covering the western section, the other the eastern section.

Today we tackled the western section totalling 77 km, 1291 m climbing.

This ride is possibly our favourite ride ever…possibly….there is a fair bit of competition, but it is certainly right up there.

What made this ride rate so highly? Was it easy? No way, it is a tough sporting ride, with punchy ups and downs and a couple of tough climbs.

The temperature was hot, for us, around 30c and quite humid. We melted.

This ride is amazingly beautiful and challenging gaining heights that provided extraordinary vistas, the most incredible blue azure seas, views over the distant Corsica (France) and old villages.

The vegetation was typical Tuscan scrub, with patches of green in gullies, otherwise quite dry. Very rocky outcrops.

We rode in an anti clockwise direction, meaning the sea views were closest to us (remembering Italians drive on the right hand side of the road).

We started by heading back towards Portoferraio on a road we are not particularly fond of as it is busy, but there was this nice vista looking towards the eastern section we will head to tomorrow.

Elba has over 80 beaches and it is not possible to check them all out. Many are down very steep roads, people parking up higher and walking down. I think a small boat would be wonderful for such a reconnaissance.

We did ride into Procchio though. It was only about 9 am there were few beach goers with the temperature already being in the high 20’s.

On we continued, up and down and around the coast.

There were 13 registered climbs per our Hammerhead bike computer. We were now at the point of one of the longer ones. The tallest climb below. It was 5.7 km in length with some steep pinches over 10%, but doable despite the over bearing heat.

There is another shorter climb after Poggio to take you to a higher village, Marciana.

Some of the views.

We then rounded the cape to ride along the north west section of the island, heading south along the western section.

The land was increasingly barren and windy, with distant views to the island of Corsica (France).

An area we liked was Fetovaia, regarded as one of Elba’s most exotic beaches, sheltered from most winds.

On the home run now along the southern coast, numerous more beaches, and one nasty 3.5 km climb that we found tougher than the longer, earlier one.

This climb had multiple sections well known excess of 10% for extended periods. I was regretting not having found an early lunch.

With our home beach of Lido in the far distance the remaining challenges were two small hill climbs, one of which was on gravel.

We were very satisfied with this ride as tough as it was. Truly a sporting loop for self powered road cyclists.

A chill for e-bikes many who were dressed for a picnic, no helmets, and the rent a mopeds, wearing no shoes, hair flowing.

An interesting note on helmet use with bikes. I think 100% of road cyclists ( Lycra clad wearers) used helmets. E-bikes, some did, some had strapped to,the front of their bike ( super useful if they crash…not) or had no helmet.

In Australia they are compulsory and I am all for them as my fractured stapes and subsequent conductive hearing loss and epilepsy both believed to be from a head knock I had with a fall on a busy road when I was 20 from a bike, pre helmet days (per my neurologist and ENT).

We demolished the food in our fridge on our return, had a shower and a nanna nap! Later we made it to the beach for an earlier dinner.

I highly recommend Elba Island to anyone wanting to visit Italy!