BIT1701 Toskana Tour
23 Mai 2017
Good Bye everybody. It was a pleasure guiding you. Hope we could give you a taste what Italy is like. And there is so much more out there - awesome roads, good food, nice people. Hope we will see each other again.
Safe travels
Your Tourguides Ursula and Manuel
8. Day: San Marino - Florence
Rain in San Marino this morning, not so good forecast for Florence - we decided to do the short route. And if it clears up we could extend a little bit. It was a wise decision.
Coffee stop in Forli - the best coffee on tour. Guess whose is whoms? The favourite mother-in-law maybe knows??
dry roads up the Passo Muraglione - nice ride
and than at the end the sun came out and we dance a little bit up and down the Passo della Consuma.
7. Day: Loop Day San Marino
Today it is a hop on hop off day. We are going down to Rimini to the "Teutonengrill" which means more or less "German Barbeque". Simoncellis museum and memorial are on the list as well as Misano Race Track. A lunch at the beach will give us the energy to continue to Valentino Rossi`s place in Tavullia. His Ranch, his coffee shop and the fan shop will enjoy you. And maybe you get a cappuccino with the "46" on it. But first of all we wait for the 1000 miglia. The cars are coming to San Marino today.
San Marino
Sic`s memorial in Coriano
Misano race track
free entrance to the training
Bel Sit - high above the Adriatic Sea. Beautiful view and awesome food
last not least Rossi`s Ranch....
... and the Cafe dello Sport with fan shop
6. Day: Assisi - San Marino
Another beautiful blue sky above us and another fantastic road below us! 254km today to get to San Marino, one of the oldest republic of the world!
First we will pass by Lake Trasimeno - where an important battle between Rome and Carthago took place in 217 BC, then a stop in Cortona for visiting the famous town featured also in "Under the Tuscan Sun", followed by many, many curves until our lunch stop in Umbria.
Some more left right left right and we arrive in Urbino, one of the best example of Renaissance architecture: the Palazzo Ducale (Duke Palace) of Montefeltro is simply astonishing!
In the afternoon it's time to leave Italy and enter the tiny Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino.
5. Day: Assisi loop to Norcia
Another "rest day" today: who wants to leave the bike in the garage and walk around Assisi all day? No one? Ok, let's go for a ride towards Norcia and Monti Sibillini then! This area in the last two years have been affected by several strong earthquakes and some roads are still closed. Villages like Castelluccio and Arquata are still isolated and nearly completely destroyed.
Norcia, famous for its "salami di cinghiale" (will boar salami) can be partly visited but we need to modify a bit our route since the road through the Monti Sibillini plateau is still closed.
Saint Francis
4. Day: Siena - Assisi
TIme to move on to the next destination: the spiritual and peaceful hometown of S. Francis, Assisi! But between Siena ad Assisi there are countless of wonderful panoramas. Once again along the verdant rolling hills of the Crete Senesi, then a stop in Montalcino famous for its Brunello wine (an old bottle can be priced up to 1.000 eur) and then a scenic picnic stop in Bagno Vignoni.
first stop was Montalcino - famous for the Brunello. We climbed up to the fortress, not Franz of course.
What a view!
San Antimo - a mystical place
the chefs preparing the picnic
and after some 100 curves more we arrived in Bagno Vignoni, a charming town and a therrmal spa.
A delicious picnic waited for us.
this is an internal joke! Hi Tom, für eine Machete hat es leider nicht gereicht :-)
finest art along the basin - amazing
Lago Trasimeno - we had an ice cream. Some had some problems to eat it :-)
Uiiii - Franz`s shoes!! If you think it is a beginning alzheimer - wrong!
Franz is on his 5th tour. Look at the most expensive t-shirt on this planet :-) and it fits perfectly.
3. Day: Siena Restday
Le Crete is our destination for today. Typical Tuscan hills, cypress alley along the driveways to the farmhouses. We will visit San Galgano und Abbazia di Monte Oliveto and we will learn something about the power of the church. Curvy roads in the Merse valley and in the afternoon sightseeing in Siena - Piazza del Campo, Torre del Mangia, the cathedral with the unique mosaic floor,
Ducati parking
San Galgano - our first stop
masterpiece of gothic archtitecture
this is Tuscany how you know it from calender pictures
Franz took a rest today and the boys waited for us with a delicious picnic
the salad sauce was awesome - thank you Franz
and a coffee with the sweeties sponsored by Angelika
some impressions of this paradise
the cathedral of Siena
on the left San Domenico.( Picture taken for Domenico :-) )
2. Day: Florence - Siena
The rolling hills of the Chianti, that`s what we will enjoy today. The icon is the black rooster, which is on every Chianti wine bottle and garantees D.O.C. A stop in Greve with its famous butcher shop as well as the "Manhattan of Tuscany" are on our plan. So let`s roll...
1. Day: Arrival in Florence
The first Tour of Tuscany in 2017 is about to start. Villa Pitiana, south of Florence, in the middle of olive and vineyards is our meeting point. The bikes are already here, clean and brand new.
Stay tuned....