Since we bid ‘arrivederci’ to Cinque Terre a few weeks ago, we’ve headed away from the Liguria coast and into a new world: Tuscany. Rolling hills, sunflowers, greenery, views for miles, cyprus trees and sunshine. Tuscany is beautiful, there are no two ways about it. We were prepared for it, but it really takes your breath away (although that might be something to do with the incessant hills). Both of us have a crush on Tuscany.
Our time in Tuscany has been the most tourist-y cycle touring experience on our trip so far. Obviously it’s still ‘all about the journey, man’ but this time the destinations are pretty freakin’ awesome too. Lucca, San Gimignano, Siena, Firenze – this bevvy of Tuscan beauties with their windy alleyways and stone city walls is enough to melt any heart.
Siena deserves a special mention, not just because the campsite served exceptional happy hour Aperol spritz (Sam)/ prosecco (Becky), but because for the first time on this trip we turned up somewhere At The Right Time. We’ve turned up in French cities on a Monday with no food and all shops / restaurants closed; Porto on Easter Sunday with no food and all shops / restaurants closed…you get the picture. In Siena, however, we arrived in time for ‘Il Palio’, the oldest horse race in the world (you know, the one that features in the opening scenes of the Bond film Quantum of Solace).
To the people of Siena, however, Il Palio is not a mere race. Each of the 17 contrada (city quarters) has a horse in the race and winning is a huge honour, said to bring prosperity for your contrada for the coming year. Being Italy, emotions runs high. As do the levels of bribery (each contrada apparently has a budget of €300,000 for bribery and sabotage; you can’t bet on the race with mainstream bookies). The police will turn a blind eye to the inhabitants of the winning contrada beating the sh*t out of the other other contradas, purely because they won (at the end of the race people are seen running back to the safety of their district).
The race itself is three high-octane laps around the Campo, main square, which is covered in dirt specially for the race, lasting approximately 90 seconds in all. In order to watch the race you either have to have time or money. If you have money, you can buy a seat (for hundreds of euros) on the wooden benches erected especially around the race track. If you have time, you can get a place standing in the huge central area of the Piazza – but you need to turn up hours in advance in order to get a good position. Not wanting to waste our good luck, we turned up to the Piazza 4 hours early and secured ourselves a prime position on the edge of the track with a perfect view of the hardest corner of the race. To compound our luck we were next to a group of British lads who knew a load about the race and its history (they had also cycled to Siena and were there specifically for Il Palio).
It may seem a bit weird to wait for 4 hours in order to see 90 seconds of horse racing. But blimey it was worth it. This thundering, adrenaline fueled blur must be utterly unique. Standing so close to the track (we were hit by the dirt from the horses’ hooves) we could see the pride, fear and adrenaline in the jockeys’ eyes. This, together with seeing two horses crashing into barriers and one of the jockeys laying motionless on the ground, brought the danger of the whole spectacle home – and what winning it means to each contrada. As the winning jockey crossed the line the inhabitants of his district flooded the track, literally in tears.
Being away from the coast has enabled us to wild camp again. We have a love-hate relationship with wild camping. Love it because it’s free (the best things in life and all that…) and because it feels like you’re Doing The Cycle Touring Thing Properly. Hate it because you never sleep very well, and you could get moved on at any time. Sadly, having taken all precautions we felt necessary we were discovered twice in Tuscany. The second time was quite a shock indeed – at 11pm on a Sunday night, just as we had drifted off to sleep having stealthily pitched our tent in a field, we were awoken by a massive tractor replete with spotlights and hay-bailer heading straight for us. As we camped two feet from some soon to be bailed hay, you can imagine the panic that ensued. Thankfully, after much hand gesturing and broken communication (what on earth is the Italian for ‘please don’t run us over?’), it turned out the farmer didn’t really mind about us trespassing and merely drove around us. Phew.
We also managed a ‘wild camping’ error at Pisa airport on the way back to the UK for a week (we’ve not abandoned our trip, it’s just that we’ve reached the age where friends are getting married…shit). Being cheapskates and having a flight at 6am we decided to sleep in Pisa airport overnight to save some treasured pounds. ‘We’re well prepared for this’ we thought, ‘we’ll take our airbeds and everything’. Having bedded down for the night we were woken by the police at midnight to say we had to leave, the airport was closing. Not expected – aren’t all airports 24 hours?! Worried, we went outside and were relieved to find a group of people in the same situation lying on the grass in front of the airport. So down we lay and promptly fell asleep. 2hrs later we were awoken by sprinklers. Every other bugger had already gone inside but (presumably) because we were so comfortable we’d slept through the commotion and were left completely soaked. A rude wake up call if ever there was one.
To be completely honest, we were slightly daunted about going back to the UK – not so much the ‘going back’ itself, more the ‘coming back out again’. Obviously it would be lovely to see family and friends, but would a glimpse of reality affect how we were feeling about the trip? Would we no longer enjoy it because we’d had such a nice week in the UK? Would our bikes still be where we left them? What on earth are we going to say when people asked us when we’re going to come back and what we’re going to do when we’re back? But, unexpectedly, returning to our bikes and our beloved tent felt like…coming home. And when we looked around us and saw Tuscany stretched out before us – well, you’d be a fool not to keep on pedaling.
sambeckybikes 
We love reading your blog & glad you’re still enjoying the challenge. We too stumbled on a biggie – running of the Bulls in Pamploma. Quite a spectacle too although it was good to be back on the road away from the crowds.
Take care both, Sylv
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Lovely seeing you a week or so ago. Back in the saddle once more. Pleased to read that you are really enjoying Italy. Also pleased that you are not encased in a hay bale! The race sounds rather frantic, We have had 1 or 2 really hot days here, I can’t imagine how you cycle in the heat…. maybe more chance to stop and enjoy the local tipples! Carry on enjoying and keep safe, Love G.
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