Introducing Bike Florence&Tuscany

A friend offered us to join a special bike ride from Florence through some small towns in Chianti Region all the way to Sienna. Luckily I didn't have to ride a bike, I had a privilege to be the photographer and to follow their biking trip by car. The bike ride was meant to test biking routes they were going to offer to tourists, as they planned to open a new company named 'Bike Florence & Tuscany'.

Our First Trip to Lucca - Lucca Comic 2012 Event

We decided to buy 2 tickets to Lucca on that rainy afternoon at Stazione Firenze S.M.N. The next day would be our first trip to explore another medieval town in Tuscany, Lucca.

That next morning of November 1st, 2012 we arrived at the station by bus and bumped into some Chinese tourists with their bulky cameras, a notebook sized of i-Pads and camera phones. Near them were two Italian girls, one of them dressed up in devilish Halloween costume; one of the Chinese man, laughed and tapped the girl with the costume on her shoulder, asked if he could take photos with her. The girl laughed and let all those Chinese tourists surrounded her, posed for them and enjoyed her moment being "a star" with “fans”.

We laughed and quickly ran to the platform to check the announcement board with all itinerary schedules. We finally got on the right train, only amazed to find the train was so full with young people, not only that, some of them looked extremely strange as they dressed up in Halloween costumes. Some even painted their faces into skeleton look. We thought, of course it’s Halloween and apparently it’s a big event in Italy. Young people proudly walked around in their weird devilish costumes celebrating Halloween, schools had some special events to celebrate it and encouraged their students to actively participate.

One Day in Sienna

Sienna

It was a hot summer. Surprisingly 40C , hot and steaming.  One of our plan was to visit Sienna during our 3 days visit in Florence with Alex before we continue to Switzerland. 

We took a bus ride from Stazione Firenze S.M.N to Sienna. The trip was pleasant, despite the heat. We arrive in Sienna about an hour later. Unfortunately, the bus stop a bit outside of the city, and we were suggested to take a local bus which will bring us to the center in about 15 minutes.  Instead of taking the bus which according to the Dutch very inefficient (in term of time; because it would take the same time compared to if we would go by foot) and unreliable (since you’ve never known whether the bus would really come or not due to strike that -we heard- happened often in Italy), so we decided to walk to the center and we got there after 30 minutes walk.

The Arrival

Finally we arrived in Florence on that afternoon of August 10th, 2012, after about 4 hours trip back from our awesome holiday in Switzerland. It was a safe and fast trip, even on the swift train that connected us from Milan to Florence. 

We were so amazed of how fast the train goes…the speed was 300km/hour. Fortunately the process of getting the house keys in a café at Porta Romana was also smooth. Plus a cup of espresso for refreshment after a long trip made the whole trip a perfecto. As we walked across the giardino pubblico next to the famous giardino di Boboli to get to our house, we felt the sunlight piercing our bare skins. It was nearly 40°C in Florence. As many have told us, August 2012 is the hottest month of the summer; and it turned out that this summer 2012 is the hottest summer in Florence. So welcome to Firenze! 

The Dutch Style of Chillin' at Lago Di Idro

The sun was high when we got up our bed. It was a good night sleep, I slept like a log. I woke up from the cute voice of a little girl who camped with her parents in front of our caravan.

That was the first daytime at Lago di Idro on the north of Italy about 2 hours drive from the border. The weather was so great that day, so Jos and Alex decided to bike around the lake and I chose to stay and relax. Sitting in front of the caravan and read a novel “A World I Never Made” by James LePore. It was not a great novel, it’s kind of Dan Brown’s style of story, but yeah it’s just me, I had to finish what I have started, so I began to read it, found it not my favorite but kept on reading and aimed to finish it.

A Ride to A New Chapter

The first day we arrived in Florence this summer was still fresh in my mind. It was the hottest summer of 38°C- 40°C. Humid and hot, like I said to myself, this is another Surabaya.

We left Zaltbommel on July 31th, early morning on a car ride with Alex all the way to Italy. It was summer time but as usual summer in Holland, the temperature that early morning when we left the house was cold even for a real Dutch. 

The traffic all the way was smooth it was a great pleasant ride through some European borders until we finally entered Austria. I was so amazed with the view of my surrounding.  It was an awesome place of hills and typical Austrian housings. We stopped for sometimes at a house of our friend’s relatives for a cup of coffee and a little chat in a mixed of Deutche-French-German language, and then got his skiing gears.