Italy Day 11

Today was a bittersweet day! It was our last day of riding so we were sad to be done but excited to be closer to Rome. Skyler made eggs for breakfast. Next time we need salt and pepper packets.


We took a wrong turn on our way out of Florence, but ended up here. It was an unusual sight for Italy. We decided to see what it was. Turns out this is the Florence American Memorial Cemetery for World War II. It was very humbling, especially since it was Memorial Day in the United States. No on else was there and it was so quiet. We walked around and looked at the inscriptions on the walls. There were fresh flowers on many graves, as it was Memorial Day the previous day (it was still Memorial Day in the US, but Italy has a 9-hour time difference).




I am so thankful that we took a wrong turn and stumbled across this memorial. It made me appreciate my freedoms, especially my freedom to be visiting this beautiful country. We left the memorial and continued on our way to Siena.


Today was probably the most beautiful day of scenery we had seen. We were in Tuscany! I couldn't believe that it would be as beautiful as everyone said it was. I was wrong. There were olive trees and grape vines everywhere.


But, like the rest of our riding days, it was SO hot! I don't mind the heat so much, but I felt bad for Skyler because he doesn't like being hot. I never heard him complain once. And the ride was not as easy one. It was up and down the entire time. No time for coasting.


For lunch we stopped by a restaurant called Caffe S. Anna. I had some great pasta with peas. We also got free wifi. There is a law in Italy that it is illegal to have open wireless internet. So every time we wanted to use the internet, we had to show our passports and get a password.

We continued the up-and-down ride for a few more hours.

We followed these signs during our entire trip. Italy is pretty easy to navigate around.

We passed a German couple who was biking the opposite way. They took our picture, one of the few pictures of us together.


Our first view of Siena. We made it! It was a nice descent from here, until we hit town and there were two 14% grade hills. Wow, I can't believe I was able to climb those hills at the end of the day. We biked 76km today.