Bike adventures

As always, I wander as much as I can by bicycle. And I see something new every day.

Riding to Italian classes in Viareggio, I start with a couple kilometres of open fields alongside canals.

Halfway there, I paused in this flowered bower just to take a photo. After this point, I can ride through a lovely long shady forest of pines.

A few days ago, I went left where I always go right, and when I ride back through this village, I found this mural.

But I did go right first. The road goes up a valley behind Massa. Way way up into the mountains. All of it along a clear green blue steam. A hot weekend day, so the stream was full of families. I rode to where the asphalt became a dirt trail. Parked my bike against a rock, took off my helmet, walked down to the creek and sat down in the freezing delicious water, fully clothed. So refreshing!!! I was dry again within ten minutes…

Here’s a shot up the valley. This is what my riding zone looks like. Steep jagged mountains shaping the horizon.

Graffiti is everywhere.

At the intersection of roads just before Seravezza, there’s a water fountain that I like. Actually many of these high mountain roads have water fountains where people drive up with a stack of bottles and collect pure drinking water. I like the fountain for its sculpture. Seravezza is the marble area that was opened up by the Medici at the time of Michelangelo. He explored this area and some of his pieces were from here. The Medici were trying to break the near monopoly Carrara had on the marble business. Through their efforts, Seravezza and Pietrasanta became famous marble quarries.