Day 7 (VBT Day 4): 6/14/22

Yesterday, I described our accommodations to some riders who arrived after us that it was a little over the top. I told them that I would typically not choose a place like this because it feels like I shouldn't touch anything. It is rated as five stars. It was my least favorite accommodation so far: a lot of glass, very modern, not very much character.

Here is breakfast. The buffet was much more plentiful than the last place, but it was still a challenge if you were vegan.

Here we are on the terrace.

And here are our guides. Alessandra is on the left and Micole is on the right.

At our briefing after breakfast, we discussed the ride options. It got a little complicated because we all needed to be at the lunch spot at roughly the same time. So we spent some time trying to figure out what time the people doing the long ride should leave and what time the people doing the shorter ride should leave. To make things even more complicated, the three of us wanted to add on some miles and get going as soon as the briefing was over rather than wait around for the start time.

The guides told us there were no towns along the way where we could stop and get food and drink, so I found a town that was a little off the longer route called Castagneto Carducci. It had its own website (https://www.visittuscany.com/en/destinations/castagneto-carducci/), so we knew there would be facilities there.

I used google maps to determine the route and our guides told us not to count on signage, although we found the signs to be accurate and helpful. This was important because the technology never worked perfectly 100% of the time.

The town is at the top of the hill and the climb got us pretty warm. 

This is a lookout at the edge of town.

This is main street.

We explored the town and settled on a piazza with drinks from a convenience store.

We explored a little more to find a better view of the countryside.

Here's nice picture spoiled by a couple of cyclists.

I finally got rid of them.

We descended the hill town and got back on the route to the lunch stop, an olive oil farm.

Here's the owner giving us a lecture on how to make olive oil and how to distinguish the good stuff from the fake.

Bottom line: if it is inexpensive, it is probably fake.

The summary for the day's activities promised extra miles in the afternoon if we wanted. Alessandra described a little loop with a lot of climbing. We decided to take the easy route back.

Here are the data for the morning ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/7306986629

Here are the data for the afternoon ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/7306986682

Trying to coordinate all these logistics and the fact that last week's tour group were a bunch of complainers gave me the opportunity to teach our tour guides the term "high maintenance" over lunch.  They had fun with that because there is no direct translation into Italian, although of course there are parallel behaviors. 

The evening activity was a cooking class. Kika runs a small cooking class business out of the home she renovated. She is an architect by training.

Here she is in her kitchen and garden.

She made quite a few dishes ahead of time, but we helped her make gnocchi. Here she shows us how it's done. She used an ice cream scoop.

Here is Stu copying the master. He also chopped sage. Walter and I helped top the gnocchi with aa slab or gorgonzola and a pat of butter. Walter also chopped parsley I also helped an assembly line prepare a cheese appetizer.

One of the interesting thing about the Italian diet in general and the gnocchi is specific is that despite the heavy use of dairy, there is very little lactose intolerance among Italians. The gnocchi mash is farina heated in milk. After shaping it into balls, it is topped with a slab or gorgonzola and butter (that was my job). The Canadian work-away couple said that lactose intolerance and gluten allergies are probably caused by the additives more than the actual food item. There's probably some truth in that, especially when you consider that most wheat, soy, and corn products are genetically modified.

Here's the rest of the gang making bruschetta.

Somehow, she managed to get 18 people in her kitchen and many occupied with piecemeal tasks.

Here's the finished product.

I signed up for her online cooking class.