Wednesday Sept 14, 2011
Casabianca to Villa Curina 61.4 km (38.1 miles) Elevation gain 1620 ft
Link to Garmin Data:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/114281548
We are now heading further north toward the greener pastures of the Chianti region, leaving the "lunar" landscape of southern Tuscany behind. We would also be enjoying an evening in Siena, dining on our own, after a tour of a secretive contrada museum courtesy of Dario Castagno. I happened to read Dario's book, Too Much Tuscan Sun, per the suggestion of our Backroads guide book. If you never have reason to visit Tuscany, this is still a book to put on your reading list. It is a collection of short stories in the truth is stranger than fiction genre about Dario's experiences as a private tour guide in and around Tuscany. Much of the book is, laugh out-loud, hilarious, but it is sprinkled with some touching vignettes as well.
I captured a few outside shots of Casabianca prior to leaving for Villa Curina this morning.
We are in for another challenging day of cycling with good climbs, temperature in the 90's and no clouds to blot out the sun.
Andres was our on-road leader and treated some of us to a beverage.
I chose my new favorite energy drink
Marco decided he needed some extra carbs
We had lunch at Borgo Casato. Nace and I were the last to arrive due to a simple mis-reading of directions. Thankfully there is more than one way to get to Castelnuovo Berandenga.... and all of them are uphill.
Plenty of food and the ubiquitous welcoming smiles of our leaders
For the past several days we have pondered many great philosophic matters as we slowly pedaled up the hills of Tuscany. Not the least of them being how to flush the toilets and just how does one properly employ the bidet? Below you will find one of the solutions.
Our accommodations at Villa Curina for the next two nights were really first class. We had a panoramic view of the valley below and unlike our pool in Naples, this water was bracing and refreshing after suffering under "too much Tuscan sun".
Our leaders, however were relegated to the belfry of our building but at least they had a laundry service!
After showering we climbed into a bus for a ride to Siena. As promised, Dario Castagno awaited our arrival on the street of his home contrada, the caterpillars. Time and bandwidth do not allow me to go into the details of the political/social structure of the population of Siena and I refer you to his great book for extensive coverage of the main event of their society, il Palio. Think of this as the Kentucky Derby on steroids. There are no fancy designer dresses and mint juleps here. This is serious, deadly serious! Basically each of the contradae (neighborhoods of Siena) are at war, at least for two days of the year. The battle is waged on a sandy race track in the middle of Siena. This tradition dates to the Middle Ages and in 90 seconds a group of half crazy bareback riders circle the city's Piazza del Campo (il Campo). There are no rules and as evidenced by two videos shown in the caterpillars private museum, it can be quite deadly for horse and rider. The good news is it is not necessary for a horse to retain its rider to be declared the winner.
Dario Castagno on the main street of the "Caterpillar" contrada (neighborhood)
Caterpillar Contrada Museum
On a regular, non Palio day, il Campo is the focal point of tourists and locals enjoying shopping, downing Tuscan wine and delicious Tuscan cuisine
Andres is providing some directions to the restaurant we have chosen for dinner with Gus, Karina,Rob,Sheri,Jim and Elise.
It is a long walk to the restaurant so we opted for a gelato for energy
This remarkable gentleman negotiated the maze like streets without assistance while we got lost with a map in hand!
A remarkable fact about Italy is wine is less expensive than water, what a blessing!
o
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