Fit in Florence

This morning we got up early and went to a little café and made one last visit to the central market before we made a mad dash for our bike tour.  There were about twelve people in our group and we hopped into two vans and drove like Italians to Tuscany, which was about forty minutes away.  The first place we went in Tuscany was to a castle where the local wine and olive oil is produced.  We were taken on a tour of the wine making facilities and shown the process, but not of the olive oil because the harvest isn’t till November.  Then we went down stairs for a little tasting session.  I haven’t acquired much of a taste for wine yet but it was pretty good relatively.  Then we got our bikes and sailed down the roads of Tuscany.  The land was so beautiful.  The vineyards and the houses and estates were everything you would imagine and want for Tuscany.  We had lunch in a little restaurant which served lasagna and salad and bread ice cream and coffee.  The ride was mostly downhill and we just cruised.  It was fun to bike in Europe because even though it wasn’t France it was felt a little like riding along the route of the Tour.  There was a huge field of sunflowers that we road by and tiny cars and street signs that don’t make sense.  I wish my dad could have been there.  Especially because even though the route was a circle all the elevation we descended was made up in 1000 meters.  It was the most intense hill I have ever been apart of.  I wanted to make it all the way up and thought I was going to but realized the “top” was actually just a turn into another hill twice as steep.  The best part of the ride though was the very end when some of the guys in the front of the pack took off up the last hill and then flew down the last one to our stop.  It was fun to get out and do something active as opposed to academic, to experience something new but familiar in a foreign country.