More bike riding under the Tuscan sun

Last fall I wrote a blog on why I love bike riding in Tuscany, so I shouldn’t be writing another one so soon—but I just can’t help it! With the temperature in the high 60s and the sun shining brightly, I took two rides today, a short one to Altopascio in the morning on an errand, and then a longer pleasure trip to Tofori in the afternoon.

Looking south from Tofori towards Montecarlo and Montechiari.

Elation floods my senses from the combination of freedom, beauty, independence and serenity. My Italwin electric-boost bike glides quietly and effortlessly over the multitude of little-trafficked backroads in the Valdinievole. On my hour-long afternoon ride, I encountered fewer than a dozen cars, with the exception of a half kilometer stretch on the moderately busy via Pesciatina that I needed to traverse to get from Gragnano to via San Gennaro. Starting from Montecarlo, I took the road northwest to San Martino in Colle, passed the Quercione and continued on to Gragnano. Once I left via Pesciatina, it was all uphill to Tofori, an elevation increase of about 220 meters in 3.5 kilometers, but with the power from my e-bike, I never broke a sweat. And what goes up must go down, but oh so quickly and effortlessly.

Wild flowers in Gragnano.

I glided past twisted grape vines, rolling hills of olive groves and numerous multitextured and ancient stone-and-brick buildings, some of them more than 600 years old. Many of the roads are rough, as they consist of asphalt placed directly over ancient mule and cart paths that were carved out centuries ago. With minimal grading and no placement of gravel sub-base prior to the paving, these hillside roads are subject to settling and development of potholes, and only minimal efforts are made to modernize them.

A hazel dormouse!

On my return trip, I pulled off on an off-shooting dirt trail and followed it over a tiny brook, until it became too rough to continue. I stopped to admire the wildflowers and towering oaks, and to just soak in the silence, broken only by the songs of wild birds. I even found what looked like a cross between a mouse and a ground squirrel hiding in the weeds. Thanks to some online help from our friend Wendy, I later identified it as a hazel dormouse. I've not seen a mouse with a bushy tail before. I mentally filed the location away as another great place for a picnic with my wife and a nap on a warm summer day.

Oak trees in the sunshine in Gragnano.