welcome to Umbria!

Its Sunday afternoon and I'm just not finished yet! Had an awesome weekend delivering bikes and picking up bikes from rentals all over Italy, mostly Tuscany and Umbria, the big valleys in the middle of the boot. I had a little trepidation after the rain storm we had Thursday nite....





...but the whole weekend ended up charmed charmed charmed!

Friday I had a delivery near Siena, then worked my way to a pick up in the hills of southern Tuscany...then off to Lago Trasimeno for a little camping and r-n-r.









At the pick-up after these fields, I met a family from the Bay Area. They asked what the hay was for and I replied either feed for livestock or the tremendous amount of pasta shoved down your gullet in Italy. I mentioned to the two boys (about 12 and 16) somone should set one rolling down the hill...they replied it had been done the night before. Good show fellas.







Was greeted with an amazing post-rainstorm sunset.





Saturday, got up early had amazing cappuccino and croissants and headed out to circumnavigate the lake.







Stopped to pet this greazy runt, he had dreadlocks and was happy the sun was out.



Little more road and eventually hit the dirt...where I remained for the rest of the 80 km trip! Check the video...listen to the cicadas and birds, the only thing I heard for 20km...





Crossed this scary bridge...I think the circle means "don't" or at least "not recommended"



Before I go applauding my navigational abilities let me first say that Umbria has some of the best trail marking systems I have ever seen! All I had to do was follow these...and even when they got confusing, keeping the lake either in front of me or on my right was a sure bet...







Hit the market here for some tasty fresh fruits, which kept me from bonking later when Italy closed down for lunch.



Found some local art...and no matter what your point of view is on grafitti these are amazing pieces!







More farmland next to the lago...



More docks...



Wind picked up on the southern side of the lake and I didn't see anyone for a while...then these two walk by out of no where...yeah Italian summers...double click for a close up...





Consider that your postcard for the month of July!



Abandoned castles, pines and sunflowers...



and more sunflowers...



That Island in the distance has an old castle on it that has been turned into a Hostel. Might have to save that trip for the first one of you to come for a visit!



sweet Umbrian singletrack...



More sunflowers...



...and then the sweet smell of pine reminiscent of northern california or central oregon, a smell that brought crazy floods of memories...



Getting closer to the starting point...Castiglione Del Lago, a castle turned tourist town atop a hill overlooking the lake...belissimo!





One more hill from the wharf to the castle and it was time for that post bike ride treat...





Look at ChiChi in the background below... Just when you think you have it all figured out something comes along and challenges everything you thought up until now... that's ChiChi for me this summer, the cheap used hybrid that changes everything I ever thought about bikes and mobility and adventure - all for the better! Anyone wanna buy my motorcycle?



Bought some white wine and salami for later, rode around and found the actual castle tower to be open this time (I had stayed here before on a weekday) Being the swashbuckler that I am I climbed the tower and took a million pictures, even this cool video...





another postcard moment...





creepy staircase light...





the big white screen is where they show movies in the summertime...cool.





...had another beer and watched the acrobatics of the swifts feeding on a swarm of bugs hatched by the rain of previous days. I then headed down for a swim in the lake, some food and a place to watch another epic sunset.



Swifts hanging on the castle walls...







Click here for a time lapse.




I slept like a baby in a borrowed tent, and woke in the morning to find I shared said tent with this not so little fella...



Sunday, more cappuccino and croissants and out to another pick up in the hills outside Arezzo, then back to the farm through the alpines.



Unloaded the van and all my stuff, posted on the blog and then I'm off to meet some homies in town for Aperativo at the ClanDestino.


What a weekend!

Its definitely been said before, by most everybody in fact, that the driving and the rental deliveries can be the toughest part of this job. No doubt about that! Ive had my fair share of inventing new swear words and being pissed off at the GPS, its true. But something was really different this weekend. And I think this time its me. I feel my confidence building when it comes to travel after the weekend in France and navigating my way round Italy, and this weekend was a perfect mix of both work and play. Therein lies the balance I have been seeking almost my entire life! I knew the weekend was going to be drastically different when at my first delivery, the woman who ran the agritourismo said, "They make you drive bikes all over the countryside?" And my knee jerk reply was "The word is not 'make' - it is LET."

Come for a visit, there is always room at the Farm and I'm feelin' like I can probably play a wicked good tour guide...

S