Ok so… Hans likes to ride the bike – a lot! And as the last ten years flew by he kind of picked me up and threw me into this sport. Not mountainbiking, not race biking …. more like light-and-fast cycling with camping gear. I always liked the idea to travel self-supplied. We are talking tent, sleeping bag, camping stove and so on.
Since Hans was working in italy at the time and he knew he would not have time for a proper vacation until he finishes work and I knew I wanted to get away from rainy cold Berlin before winter, we decided to take the risk and go biking in late autumn. Everybody who thinks “yeah… italy always nice weather” … not even close! The trip took place in 2018…. though 2019 at the same time it was raining threee straight weeks all over italy. Apparently we were really lucky back then.
This was my first vacation that was planned to be three full weeks – to compensate the long arrival and departure ways – we wanted 14 full days on the bikes. I was in best spirit – my health was not so much. Luckily Hans was a little worn off after pushing the last couple of days at work as well so that we both took two resting days before we even startet. It was raining anyhow. The last rain for the next two weeks straight though (*laughing like the devil*)
We started in San Giovanni Valdarno (close to Florence) and the original plan was to zick-zag the Apennin mountains as far south as our legs would take us. No particular daily goals because we planned to cowbow-camp anyhow. Only issue with this luxus is the lack of impetus resulting from it. Additionally we are both not very good at getting up early …. though is european fall really good at setting sun early. The result: our days were kind of short.
