Day 20 { june 14th 2002 }
“Mini Netherlands”
A weird conversation makes us raise our eyebrows. The day is mostly spend cycling up- and downhill while singing some old-time classics. We crash at an ANWB camping high upon a hill after a hard day’s work.
Around 10 o’clock, we’re saddled up and ready to leave. Bianca has once more prepared the route for the next hours to come. Pistoia will be the next major city we will encounter. We try something new to counter the heat. We put wet T-shirts on our heads. Ok, it looks silly, but it does the trick. We walk to the entrance of the camping premises. There is hardly anyone around.
“...a cloud of noise”
The first stop is at the Spar supermarket downtown, about 10 minutes later. Bottles of water will increase the weight of our bags once again. A necessary evil.
After some croissants, we head off. Soon after that, while climbing small hills with curvy roads, we hear the puttling sound of a moped.
An elderly man starts talking to us (in italian) while he tries to synchronise with ourspeed.
We look at one another, and I start a conversation with him in dutch. Weird! The man apparently thinks the same, laughts, accelerates and slowly moves away from us in a ‘cloud of noise’.
“Shadow”
The tranquillity of the surroundings makes it easy for us to concentrate on climbing. The roads are curby and vegetation on both sides makes it a bit difficult to look around us.
But hey, it provides shadow! That is a precious thing!
When we reach the higher end of a ridge, the scenery is marvellous. The soothing, sometimes cold wind tickles our skin from time to time and I’m sure we all think: “why can’t it always be like this?”.
“...a nasty rear-end ”
That day, Rick and I feast our ears (!?) with songs we sing as loud as we can when going down-hill. But apparently it is nog liked by everyone, because when going down (second and last time I wear my crash-helmet) an insect with a nasty rear-end flies into his shirt and panics. Rich to a lesser degree. It will cause quite some painfull moments afterwards, days later.
Pistoia is a bit of a shock. Bustling with people, cars everywhere. Way too busy! We decide to cross town as quickly as possible. Bianca does a cracking job as always navigating amids the trafficlights and polluting vehicles. In the meantime, people show great interest in my Condor. At one moment, when I’m waiting in the shadow outside a supermarket, a father with two children walks past my bike. From a distance, I can see him making gestures to show how it all works. Sweet!
“The enclave ”
Outside the city, the cypresses show up in the landscape in ever increasing numbers.
Monte Albano throws a 6 km climb at us before we arrive at the camping indicated on the map.
The climbing and the smothering heat has worn us out. Although I’m cycling up front for the last few kilometers, I’ve had it as well.
The surprise is not a happy one, when we arrive at a sign just outside the village of San Baronto, indicating that the camping is situated on top of a hill. And it’s steep! The ANWB camping even has it’s own tracktor tow-service for the heavier caravans. So we walk all the way up. Think it’s about one kilometer.
Once up, it appears we have stumbled into a Dutch 50+-enclave. The supermarketpersonel speaks Dutch, and they sell dutch newspapers downtown as we find out later.
We don’t feel very much at ease, but granted, it’s a well equipped camping. Fine shower facillities, a swimmingpool with one hell of a vieuw and a good infra-structure. Abundant vegetation as well.
We fall asleep with a smile on our faces that evening, knowing that tomorrow we have given ourselves a day off.
