From: Pisa
To: La Spezia (via Lucca, Camaiore and San Terenzo)
Miles: 67.9(1,000 ft. of climbing)
Miles Completed: 455.1 (14,400 ft. of climbing)
Lunch: Café in Camaiore
Dinner: La Lanterna
Accommodations: Hotel Collazo
For some reason I had a miserable night’s sleep in Pisa. It was one of those nights where you aren’t even sure if you actually fell asleep or were just in a daze worrying about not sleeping all night. My body was very tired when I got up and I wasn’t “feeling it”. However, I almost need to remind myself of how bad I felt this morning as today was just an incredible day of riding that totally energized my mind and body. I sit here 12 hours later a totally new person with endorphins jumping inside my body.
When we woke up, the weather forecast was good so we decided we’d head to Lucca as long as there wasn’t too much climbing. Dr. Ed has some great Touring Club Italiano (TCI) maps, which do a nice job of showing the altitude of the mountain passes and severity of the climbs. TCI characterizes the difficulty of the climbs into the passes by the number of chevrons on a scale of one to three (>, >>, and >>>). In the world of cycling, I’ve come to realize chevrons are not welcome sights. TCI doesn’t just throw a chevron on the map for a random little hill. If you see a chevron, expect some pain. If you see two chevrons, expect a lot of pain. If you see three chevrons – well, luckily we haven’t done any three chevron roads yet and I hope I never do. My point in explaining this is that we were hesitant about heading to Lucca a day before our big climbing ride because we saw some chevrons on the map around the city – it’s in a somewhat mountainous region but there also appears to be ways around the mountains.
The woman at the front desk assured us there was a flat way to Lucca. Head north out of Pisa and make a left in San Giuliano Terme at the Hotel Granduca. We follow her directions and the road swerves in between the mountains as we were hoping. The scenery was very pretty. Lucca is an awesome city. It’s still walled and is very charming – in fact, you can walk or ride your bike around the wall of the city – it’s almost like an elevated circular park.
We went to three bike shops in Lucca. The first was Chrono. The owner, Paladino, was a great guy – we chatted about touring and riding around Europe and U.S. He’s been to Arizona and San Diego to ride. We show him our route to La Spezia via SP327 and he suggests a different way (SP1), which will be better for bikes and prettier. Dr. Ed buys a jersey but I hold off. We also stop at Poli, where I get two jerseys (their team jersey and an Italia cycling team jersey). The ride along SP1 was incredible. We climbed a bit and turned the corner in a little town and bang – smack in our faces was the most beautiful view (picture right) down into a valley and the town of Camaiore. The switchbacks heading down the mountain into the town were sweet. We met an Australian couple traveling Europe for six weeks in town and they love our touring story/take some photos of us. The town was in a state of lockdown for siesta so we had microwaved pasta at a bar!
We then rode directly to the water via Lido di Camaiore and headed up the Liguria coast (Italian Riviera) – it was an incredible contrast to the mountains where we just were. We headed out on a boardwalk (picture right) to breathe in the salty air and snap pictures of the beautiful scenery. The ride along the coast is so refreshing and the scenery just pops out of nowhere and smacks you in the face. We did some inadvertent climbing when we descended into a dead end town on the water near La Spezia. Great views and beautiful water but we pay the price climbing back up to the main road.
La Spezia is a cool town. Ed mentions cinque terra as a place we could visit but I’m pretty tired and want to chill. Again, I’ll just tell people I went there. I had baked mozzarella for an appetizer (so good) and pizza for my main course (yes, pizza again). We went to a bar on the water after dinner and started chatting with some women but suddenly we don’t feel welcome as locals are staring us down and the bartenders are being less responsive. We take the hint and leave immediately!
Tomorrow is our most difficult ride so it’s time for bed. I forgot to mention our accommodations are great. I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep after a tough one last night.
A domani.
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