CAUTION: Weather (and my mood) may change drastically and suddenly in the high country...always be prepared.

sometimes you NAIL it...sometimes you dont, and no matter how much time and thought and preparation and map printing, and scouting, and asking around I did, this vacation just did not pan out like I had hoped, and I had a difficult time staying flexible and neutral to the sights and sounds, and company around me.  It was not a collection of my finest moments, but by no means the fly off the handle and leave early in a tempest as I have been known for in the past, throwing hands up in defeat.  I stuck it out and it mildly redeemed itself with some decent singletrack, some sarcastic joking at the expense of the germans, an easy traffic free drive back to Romagna, and a mom-cooked meal upon return.

And those last 5 pretty much sum it up...a valley well marketed.
Ive got just enough time to throw a couple pictures up before heading down south on a Dude-Bro weekend with Fabrizio Dragoni at his grandfathers hand-laid brick beach shack... a weekend that will certainly yield more photos and stories for this-a-here blogityblog...stay tuned, Ill post it when the Verdicchio haze wears off....

...as much as I thought we were prepared for the next few departures...wait a minute!  This friggen blog is not supposed to be about WORK!  Its supposed to be about the adventures in spaghetti-land!  Its supposed to be photos that inspire you to get on your bike and go for a ride...not a forum for me to mildly bitch about how busy I am at my seasonal job in a foreign country were the food is amazing and almost 90% of the women have dark hair! (sorry GH)  When I first got this job I wondered how long it would take for me to take it for granted...HA!

As Chopper Read might say..."Harden the Fuck Up Scotty Boy!"

Presented with an opportunity on Tuesday to take train and garbage-bike to Florence, to replace a fork in the middle of a long rental, I took it!  A great chance to fake like a messenger, ride like a dick and then sit in a cafe afterwards and draw, all the while pretending like I am way better than the tourists that flood the streets in Florence.

Looks fake almost eh?

The kids renting bikes were camping above the city near my favorite plaza, Piazza Michelangelo.  They were exploring the city so I had to find the bike that needed a fork.  When I did, it was locked with two locks between two other bikes, so I had to make do and replace the whole fork and brakes and computer right there...not a bad 45 minutes work!

out with the cracked...

in with the not yet cracked...

Back to town to Angie's Pub, a favorite of mine, where I could relax and draw in the "Angie's book"

another crowded train station and I was headed back home.  I long day but worth it for the story.

 

Tuesday night was the last installment of Hott Faenza Nights!  All the stores stay open late and there are street art and performers all over town, families and couple get dressed up and cruise around, spending a little money here and there and saying a hearty CIAO! to their buddies. I met a cool couple from Chile who are riding their bikes around Europe, she selling amazing hand made jewelry, he playing a small guitar.  They were to go over the mountains the next day and their bikes were in a bad state.  So I convinced them to come by the Farm and have a little tune up, which I was really thankful they did.  You can check them out on FaceBook HERE, or even HERE.  Cool people with a cool story, reminding us that we can turn any idea into a plan, and that life is for living.

The rest of the week is open to suggestion, but since I am on call this weekend and need to stay near the Farm, I am working on friends' bikes..."L'Amicicleta" as I have invented...if you got a bike and its making funny sounds, bring it by the Farm and Ill have a look at it - it will only cost you a song, joke, or story, whatever you have.

CIAO
S.

Another successful Sunday...

As you remember, I took monday off to get some good riding time in me before what I knew to be a busy week.  I was not wrong!  Most days I was at it by 7:30 in the morning and still at it when the clock struck 8 or even 9 pm.  Gotta do whatcha gotta do, and this being a seasonal job with a well forecast calendar of tours, where getting things done inadvertently falls on my early rising shoulders...I knew things would be crazy.  I washed every single one of the 60plus bikes we prepped this week and know I tagged at least 36 of those.  Most days it looked like this by 9am, a row of clean bikes waiting their turn in the repair stand...

 

 But its not all work around here, and finishing a crazy week with an 8 hour shift on Friday made for the start of something "special"...short bus special!

The Saturday Plan included not much of anything, in fact after having coffee and cake with a friend who just returned from China I passed back out for a bonus 2.5 hours of sleep!  Air conditioning and a dvd made the rest of a hot day pass pretty easily, with a solid plan to meet up with Puglia's Forgotten Son Chef Alesandro "Miro" Miroballo for some hell raising and beer drinking.  Miro wanted to check out a hay bale amphitheater in the countryside near Cotignolo, about 12km away from Faenza.
 

from upper left to bottom right:  real moon, fake moon, hay bales with lighting...pretty cool.

this picture tells another story though, notice the shit in the air first of all, turns out an amphitheater made of hay puts a lot of dust and allergens in the air.  also note the passed out Chic in the row on the left, and the fact that groups of people are facing AWAY from the stage is a good indication of how bad the music was for the setting.  it was lame even before the dorky singer mentioned how good a friend he is of Vincent Gallo...barf.

but that did not dissuade Miro and I from doing our best to make groups of young ladies feel uncomfortable and slowly back away.  I really have not had that much fun creeping people out since I used to go on Hater Dates with Bike Bee in SF.

a drunken shit show of a ride home in the middle of the night...

Saturday morning, a little hung over but wanting to ride again before it got too hot, another Campagna ride though the countryside farm land.

found a shady dirt road that quickly became a rough path - what disappoints so many bikers makes me smile like a kid!

summer beach traffic...SUCKEEEERRRRRRSS!

old bridges and even older motorcycles...

wanted to check out a town called Massa Lombarda, which I did, then on to explore a little of old town Imola.  Both towns due to the heat, the lunch hour and the proximity to the seaside, were vacant!  and I kind of dig em that way.

a fine town, with old churches, HUGE castles, and a place where you can turn your (or someone else I guess) pictures into decorative pillows... if this shop had been open I would have bought that thing!

and for those who dressed like robin hood, played with bows and arrows, and had a general fascination for anything medieval (namely ME) that is a REAL drawbridge, and am empty moat.  cool.

Via Emilia on the way home was hot and almost killed me were it not for the church-side water fountains...

As much as I miss chowing on huge burritos and tall cans of tecate after a good ride in California, this ladies and gentlemen is home made carpaccio tartar with fresh ruccola and crostini, and along with the gelato Guinness float (that was devoured too quickly for a photo) Italy has the BEST post ride eats!

all the rides this summer have been adding nicely to my vintage glove tan lines...which secretly is kinda why I bought them in the first place.

get outside and Play as much as you can, weather be damned, flaky friends be damned, relationships and prior obligations be damned as well, today might be all we have!

S