Praise for the picturesque Padule

Yesterday’s bike ride took me to the Padule di Fucecchio, Italy’s largest swamp. What a treasure this place is! I parked my bike at the Casotto (or Casin) di Lillo and walked down what was labeled a percorso didattico, a teaching trail. I had hoped there would be some signs telling me about the flora and fauna, but no luck. Probably the teaching is normally done by an experienced guide, but I had none.

However, I did see about 200 herons and egrets, all at the same time gathered in a cluster of trees, raising a huge racket. Startled turtles plunged into the canals just ahead of me. Fingerling fish by the hundreds of thousands flitted on the edges of every canal, and the water glistened and reflected the pristine blue Tuscan sky heavenward.

As much as Italy is renowned for its stunning man-made paintings, sculptures and architecture, I still prefer the God-made art. I’m admittedly in the minority, as I was the only person in the park at the Casotto (or Casin) di Lillo from 3-4:30 p.m. Despite people in Italy being pretty environmentally conscious, I found a stagnant part of one of the canals choked by both naturally occurring and man-made garbage. Come on, people! Still, my walk was 99 percent gorgeous.

Well, not 100% beautiful.

On the ride back, I worried that my bike would run out of power. As I left the park, it dropped to three bars (out of five), and I vaguely remembered that the one time I did run out of power last fall; it had gone to one bar and then died almost immediately. I had used two bars to get to the Padule, and if it took me two bars to get to San Salvatore (the bottom of the hill), I’d be on one bar starting up the long hill and could be stuck pushing a heavy bike up the very steep last two kilometers.

When I reached Chiesanuova, it looked like my meter had dropped to two bars, and I panicked and switched off the power and pedaled on in manual mode. I wanted to have two bars when I started up the hill, and I was still two kilometers from San Salvatore. Whoa, I slowed to the pace of a walk, albeit a brisk one, but it definitely took more effort than walking. That bike is heavy! But as I came to the outskirts of San Salvatore, I pulled over and switched the power back on. Three bars! The battery must have recharged slightly, I thought, but nope, it stayed on three bars all the way home. I think what happened is that I had misread the gauge because I had my dark glasses on and not my reading glasses. Had I pulled over and looked more closely at the gauge before cutting the power, I would have been fine. Lesson learned, with the added benefit of getting a more thorough workout. I just hope that no one reads this and sees how stupid I was!