Tue. Nov 18, 2008 LUCCA - Final 40km Bike Ride

Today we took off on our last bike ride on this trip in Italy. For a last ride, this by far was one of our best. Everything was perfect (except for the weather). On a cool day with increasing clouds we went to the town of Torre just northwest of here. The owner of our apartment, Carlo also owns a large farm house up on the mountain. The house is surrounded by olive groves, and it is the harvest season. We thought we would surprise him with our visit. This was a hilly course ascending to around 500m of hairpin steep sections. The landscape was the best Tuscany could offer. Criss crossing vineyards, and terraced olive groves. The rest is pock dotted with gorgeous farm houses witht red tile roofs. Other large trees fill any non-agricultural space that is there. We failed to find Carlo, but met and had a long conversation with two elderly people (look who is talking...) who were harvesting their olives. The showed us their hill top house which they rent to visitors. The views are stunning with the valley below, and the town of Lucca in the distance. They pointed out to us a large villa that was used by Kathrine Deneuve, and Marcel Mastrianni in their heydays. Evidently Torre's seclusion and beautiful terrain attracts local celebrities.

We bombed downhill from here to climb back up to the town of San Stefano. Again, a beautiful road, with fantastic vistas of farmlands, old hamlets, etc. Tuscany showed us its beauty for the final time, and we didn't get disappointed. We looped downhill and on to our aprtment in the old city's east end: Primavera Apartments. We celebrated with a cup of coffee and a traditional chestnut pancake topped with sweet riccotta cheese. When we came back outside it started to drizzle. Good timing indeed.

Tomorrow we leave with the bike on the train to Venice. This will be our final train adventure. We have had interesting experiences with trains as one never knows where the bike car might be. It is not easy to fit a tandem in the designated bike compartments some of which have doors that swing the wrong way, or there is not enough clearance to get bike through with panniers attached. Stay tuned...

Back at our apartment for dinner, we discovered that we had a new guest next door. Up to now we had the place all to ourselves, and it was exciting to have someone new, a traveller. He was from New Zealand who came here to partake in the olive harvest, and do some serious hiking. Terry is a landscape designer, who also owns 200 olive trees in New Zealand. We sat at the dinner table drinking wine, sharing experiences and comparing notes. Too bad this was our last night, or we would sure be doing a hike with him.