After a few wonderful days in Corsica we boarded our ferry to Livorno, Italy. It was so nice to be hopping on a ferry with our bikes instead of a train – and such an easy was to get to Italy. Before leaving Corsica we had checked the weather and knew there were possibilities of showers in Livorno, so we had our rain gear easy accessible just in case we needed it. Unfortunately upon arrival instead of rain showers it was down pouring – and we made a mad rush to get rain gear on before leaving the ferry.
It was a difficult ride getting out of the Livorno port with busy cargo, ferry and city traffic. Of course to top it off it we had extremely confusing directions to our place that we were staying that night. We’re definitely not in Denmark or Holland anymore and we miss all those well marked cycle routes. We have to have our wits about us on these Italian roads.
After Livorno we started making our way towards Florence through the famous Chianti wine region of Northern Tuscany. It’s very off-season for tourism here, so accommodations which would be impossible to book in the summer were easy to get with no advance notice. We stayed in a few amazing ‘Agriturismos’ (a working farm that usually produces olive oil and wine) in Pisa and Lucca over the first few days of cycling – and it’s here that we really started to see the beauty and soak in the experience of cycling in Tuscany.
One of our favourite days cycling in this region was around Lucca and Vinci (the birthplace of Leonardo DaVinci and a great homeschooling session for Kai and Vea at the Vinci museum). We loved the soft sunlight views over endless vineyards, olive groves and rolling hills (some were long and surprisingly very steep!) with the smell of autumn leaves and wood stoves burning. We arrived at our Agriturismo just before dusk and enjoyed a wonderful glass of red Chianti wine from their vineyard while watching the sunset over the hills. Later that night we had an authentic Italian ‘family dinner’. We joined the entire family from the Agriturismo at their kitchen table. The food and wine were amazing and kept coming in endless courses all evening. Even Kai eventually was too full to eat anymore – which says a lot with his huge appetite these days! After dinner Norrie stayed behind and enjoyed some aprés dinner drinks with a wonderful selection of home-made Grappa and ‘experimental fermentations’.
We knew our time was getting limited to travel by bicycle when we noticed frost on the ground in the morning and could see our breath in the air. Actually we haven’t seen any other cycle tourists since Denmark, and everybody looks at us a little strange when we’re in our cycle shorts. Our shorts and upper layers were perfect for when we climbing all the rolling Chianti hills, but we could feel the crispness in the air !!!
While cycling around the town of Lucca we decided to stop into a few bike rental shops and ask if anyone wanted to purchase two tandems after our cycling was finished. We’ve been doing a lot postings on kijiji and a few other local Italian buy and sell websites, but thought we might get lucky with a buyer if we simply stopped into some of the shops that we cycled past. Lucca is full of bike rental shops because of the 7 km walled cycle and walking route which surrounds the old town.
After exploring the Chianti region a bit more we decided to return to Lucca and follow up with some of the contacts we made for selling our bikes. To our surprise one of the smaller shops we had first visited made us a decent offer that included both bikes and all touring gear. We were ecstatic and did a victory lap around the Lucca wall before saying good-bye to ‘flower-power’ and ‘gutta-boys’ that we had grown very attached to! We had very mixed emotions and were so thankful for the safe and incredible experience travelling by bike but also relieved to be walking away with just our bike helmets and moving onto the next (and last) chapter of our travels.
Our last few days in Tuscany were spent near Florence. There was a wonderful food festival happening at the time, and we all happily indulged in of course! Food in Italy is so much part of the culture. Everything is so fresh and full of flavour, but also so simple and beautifully presented. We’ve all enjoyed some incredibly huge pizzas, perfect al dente pastas, fresh bruschetta and of course the wonderful Gelato. One rainy day we even attempted to make our own Gnocci from scratch! It all went well and was a lot of fun to make – but unfortunately at end of the process the Gnocci kind of turned into mashed potatoes. It still tasted amazing though!!
Florence has great street markets around every corner selling designer leather hand bags, jackets, textiles and also a large array of luggage. So this was the perfect place to purchase our next set of wheels…. ‘roller suitcases’. Vea has talked about her own roller suitcase for a long time, which is a nice thought after having to constantly pack backpacks and panniers for a 10 year old girl!!! It was easy to get a great deal on the suitcases from the street vendor since we had the buying power of wanting to buy four!
With our new roller wheels we easily hopped a train to Rome – which was a bit of a last minute decision, but we’ve learned to love spontaneous travel decisions like this. We had wonderful weekend in Rome full of many homeschooling opportunities. The amount of history in this city cannot be fit into just a few days, so we chose a few highlights that we thought would be great for Kai and Vea to experience. We were able to book an incredible tour of the Colosseum, explored the streets by day and night, walked through Vatican city and saw the amazing Sistine Chapel. There also happened to be another huge food and wine festival over the weekend at ‘Eataly’. This would be our last indulgence of the wonderful food tastings. Kai and Vea also enjoyed a free San Pellegrino tasting bar while Norrie and Kari enjoyed the wine tasting room which had over 200 wines to sample from all over Italy! So many wines and so little time!!
On our last day in Rome we caught a night train towards Innsbruck, Austria. We’re now all looking forward to getting back into Northern Europe with some cooler temps and hopefully lots of snow in the Alps!
Here’s some more photos from our cycling tour of Northern Tuscany and our weekend in Rome.
All 4 now!
You will all be changed for life and your children’s perspective on the world will be so immense. I am so happy for you to have had this amazing journey.
Sheila
HEAVEN!!!!!!!!! Never cease to entertain and amaze me! Every moment, every photo, FANTASTIC! I can’t wait to see it for myself someday!!!! XOXO
What can we say but amazing!! So much beauty and history. The photo’s are fantastic. I look forward to seeing it all myself someday.
I could taste the food !,brought back nice memories,
Amazing and how wonderful for all of you. A journey that you will remember for all times.
Love and Hugs
Kari, I am amazed at your adventure. I loved every minute of my travels with you in your blog. I LOVED Italy and can’t wait to go back again. It is like I was there with you, In Pisa, Florence, Tuscany and Rome. See you soon!
Marcia 🙂