tuscany 2022: Day 8 (VBT Day 5): 6/15/22

At today's briefing, the guides told us that today was the hardest day. I could have sworn that they said that the first day was going to be the hardest day. Doesn't matter: they have all been hard - unless you have an ebike.

There were more riders on ebikes on this trip than any other, probably about half. There was one family of six, all on ebikes.

Here's one of the step-through ebikes.

After packing for our transfer, we headed out along the same road past the amusement park to climb to Castagneto Carducci again. It definitely helps to do a route for the second time so we knew what to expect.

But this was only the first of three climbs for the day.

We left Catagneto Carducci and climbed to Sarsetta, which was noteworthy only in that we passed through the town in the blink of an eye and then began a long sweeping descent into Suvereto where we had lunch.

Somewhere along the way, the van parked by a spring and we refilled our water bottles.

There were also three kids at the spring. They were wearing matching kits and looked to me to be about 15. A few minutes later a team car pulled up with matching logos and and middle-aged guy got out of the car and started yelling at them. I wish I had taken a few pictures of the scene, maybe behind him so he wouldn't punch me out. Allesandra said he was saying things like: "You have to push harder! What to you think this is? A weekend ride?" The kids never said a word. It didn't look like anyone was having much fun.

Like a lot of these small towns, Suvereto had a gate at the main entrance.

Here's Stu on main street.

Here's a view of the town before arriving.

Like a lot of these little towns, there was more than one church. This one was particularly ornate.

For context, notice that there are only about a half dozen pews.

We walked around a little before settling on a place for lunch and walked some more after eating.

On the third climb, we passed an abandoned house with some amazing stone work.

If you look behind the fence in this next picture, you can see a stone-lined ditch, I assume for water.

Stopping for these pictures also gave me an excuse for being the last one up the hill.

The ride ended at our last hotel on the biking portion of the trip, Calidario Terme Etrusche in Venturina Terme.

Chinese-Jewish laundry ruining the neighborhood.

This hotel also had a spa and VBT had arranged for us to use it at no additional cost. We had silicone bracelets that had a transponder embedded in it so we needed it to get in. We had a two-hour window (4:00-6:00) when they worked. It probably also gave them the opportunity to collect usage data.

Here's the outdoor pool.

Here's space pod, just like the ones they used to have at the Syracuse airport, that you had to pass through to get into the indoor part. That's Stu going through