Author: sanborn

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.

A bit behind, but the memories are still vivid! All three of my brothers flew in on Friday afternoon and Tom’s wife Vikki joined us later that night.

We had a great time. Saw many friends, went to the mercato at Querceta to get the best roast chicken for our picnic lunch with Jacqueline. Had terrific meals, meter-long pizza in a garden in the hills with John and Anna Kia.

And had a huge adventure at the marble cave. We took the first tour of the day, which turned out to be the last. It was great fun. Then, when the van took the other group back out of the cave, the lights in the cave started to blow out. One after the other and eventually the emergency light went out too. We were in complete darkness, but of course we had our phones. It was very cool to be inside the middle of a mountain. The air was cool and damp. Small point of lights as we moved around.

Eventually the van came back. My seat was a bit wet, hmmm. The woman said it was coming down like a deluge outside. Well, how bad could it be?!

OMG, it could be amazingly bad. The van stopped inside the tunnel and we got out. A wall of water! The dirt parking lot was a lake, no, a river, a flood! Our car was in a lot on a small hill on the other side. One of the women, who drove a Range Rover, wasn’t sure her car could get through the water. I volunteered to bring our car, just hopeful that it would make it.

My hope flagged when I got to the uphill lot and it had 4-5 inches of water. Okay, no more dry feet. The car started up fine and I took it slowly through the flood waters. Charles and the others could sit in the dry. Whew…

Robin and I got the adventure bug and we forced our way across the river. My sandals were pretty marginal but they stayed on okay.

Robin went further up for more shots.

And the others moved the car to a safe place on the side, where they stayed stranded.

But, unlike the Austrian motorcyclist on the tour with us, we could eventually leave. The steep road downhill was swamped with flooding waters but they were only 4-5 inches deep, so the car made it okay. We drove hallway down and then stopped for some photos.

Went up to Metato Weds pm for a concert. It was so hot, but the views were incredible! The mountains just above us:

And the sea below:

A lovely evening. Great food, good company, sense of being way above it all.

The small town was lovely, but sheesh it was hard to walk around in. It basically clung to the side of a hill. Here are two shots from there.

As usual, I’ve got odds and ends for you too. How about this sign in a local bookstore saying that the latest Camillieri Sicilian detective story has come in. He’s such a hero here!

And a couple shots of my fellow students in Italian school. I’ve met sun many delightful people, mostly from Holland and Switzerland, but wherever we go out for lunch, we usually have 5-6 different nations represented. It’s humbling to learn about their countries and see how they see the world. Such a different viewpoint!

I went to the local museum/marble art venue on Friday for an interview with a Moravian sculptor who lives here: Ivan Theimer. He seems to have done a lot of monumental sculptures. They are so very cool. He pulls in a ton of history and culture in the monuments, plus a turtle or two. Check out the images and information for the Rights of Man monument in Paris It’s intriguing!

This is a piece of his they put on view for his talk. He has some imagery in the base. In the big monuments he has lots of small images and extra bits and pieces. I really like his work because he combines art and thinking.

And to wrap up, a couple Italy postcard shots and a moment of whimsy. OMG, this place is beautiful!

A delightful day. It began with a night in air conditioning…woohoo. Then the washing machine was delivered first thing. Yay!

Breakfast on the porch.

A few errands, and then off on the bike. The heat doesn’t bother me so much on the bike because I create my own wind as I ride and lots of sections of road are lined with thick trees so they are shady.My plan was to ride over to Collodi, Pinocchio’s birthplace. It’s on the other side of Lucca.

But it was too hot so I stopped for food, water, and ice cream and then headed home.On the way home, I saw these purple shutters. OMG, what were the Italian Aesthetic Police thinking when they allowed these through?

I ended up on a wrong turn, a wonderful tree-lined avenue, and found myself at the walls of Lucca!

It was so hot I drank all my water but I knew there was a good fountain in Valpromaro just before the last uphill. Installed in 1902. I was happy to use it!

Had a lovely day with a couple friends last Sunday. Leisurely drive, break for coffee at the beach, inside an amazing marble “cathedral,” and then up to the top of a quarry in a 4WD jeep.

The coffee was at a very modern place, even the bathroom sign was stylish and modern:. Check out these graphics. You’d never see this in America.

Then up up up a valley, to the Fantascritti caves.

We donned hard hats, mostly for the drops of water that came down through the marble. We drove a long way on a broken-up dirt single-lane road into the center of the mountain.

This is a special place: a piece of marble broke off and the workers decided it looked like the Madonna holding a baby. Since they need all the help the Madonna can give, they made it a shrine.

This photo is for Barb. Am amazingly huge machine for inside a mountain. Who knows how they got this in, but it dominates the”cathedral” interior of the quarry.

Then a good lunch, and THEN the jeep ride. The paved road was narrow and steep with very tight corners. And then it turned into a dirt road. I confess I was a bit nervous at the steep drop, but Filippo was a great driver and he got us to the top on one piece. Amazing views and lots of info. The quarry is very active on weekdays and the machinery for cutting and moving the huge 600-ton blocks off marble was all over the place.

No dull moments… Went to the office of demography to set up my residency but turns out they thought Mom was still alive so we have to sort that out first. I’m hoping this Saturday to become a proper Italian resident. Wish me luck!

Despite living in a construction zone, life is still good. Got hot water last Friday so I can shower. Yay! Bought a two-burner electric cooktop because it will be September before I have a kitchen. Sigh…

Meanwhile, I saw a bike race through town:

Saw a street name in a mountain town (on a bike ride) that’s dedicated to the Martyrs of Work, which mostly means the marble workers. Also passed an inspirational state of St. Francis.

Saw that Pietrasanta has finally installed some new artwork in the piazza.

And went on a hike to a beautiful waterfall, followed by lunch in a hilltop village. Very fun!

Our post-hike lunch. Simple and delicious. The coffee was €1 in tiny plastic cups from a Nespresso-type machine. But tasty…

Ciao a tutti!!

I’m back in my apartment, camping sort of. The floor in one room is done, and has electricity, so it’s usable. One bathroom works. That’s all I need. I’ve plugged a tiny fridge in and my neighbor has been kind enough to let me shower there a couple times. Voilà!

No blinds and two skylights, so I don’t sleep late. Each morning I fling open the windows and life in bed listening to the crowds of noisy birds. Cacophony!

But the apartment is nowhere close to being done.

Here’s the kitchen, not even fully designed yet. Just yesterday I decided to change my plan and today or tomorrow I’ll speak with the carpentry guys who have their workshop downstairs. Stay tuned…

My friend Woody managed to turn a short downhill ride that had miles of bustling beachfront into a delightful country ride with hills and noisy frogs.

We started slowly, because we had some extra hills, but settled in and managed to arrive in the village of Tavoletto for coffee. We knew we were on a good route because we kept seeing groups of cyclists along the road! At coffee, we saw a large group of Danish guys, oldsters like us, on fancy bikes (rented! The latest Bianchis, etc) and we chatted before they headed out.

The scenic spot for our coffee since the Danes had taken over the indoors of the cafe, was a bench next to the fish merchant’s truck.

The fish didn’t smell much and the backdrop was this:

Along the road, we passed a small shrine with this heraldric sign. A reminder that this area was often invaded by the French.

We rode past tended fields and wild valleys. I was often in the rear to take photos. Once, I rode up to the group who had stopped in the middle of nowhere. They gestured at me, but I didn’t understand. Oh, they wanted me to be very quiet. I stopped and got off my bike. Then I got it: a small pond next to the road had the loudest frogs I’ve ever heard in my life! I have a couple videos with the sound, but I haven’t uploaded them to YT yet. Stay tuned…

As we approached the sea, the fields became white with onion plants. I was fascinated by their round white tops.

We stopped for a delightful lunch (of course!) and then only had to ride about 10km to the hotel. The signs and decorations for the Giro stage that started here a week ago are still up.

Our destination was The Beach and the best way to get there was along the Lungomare beachfront pathway with a single-speed hotel bike. Here I am dressed for the beach on the ONLY sunny day of the two-week trip!

The beach here is just like all the others: full of buildings, umbrellas, restaurants. They are private spaces you have to pay to enter. But at the end of the main passeggiata boulevard my friend Julie and I found a great ice cream place and a free beach, so we went into the Adriatic and got our feet wet. Made us both happy.

My next bike trip is in the Central Massif in France, in mid- to late-September. Look for more road shots then…

Love you all!!

Today was the worst of days and the best of days.

We decided to go off route and find our own way to Urbino. OMG! We started out on a very steep road up to a tiny hamlet with huge panoramas. I hadn’t expected such a hard start to the day and I’m still quite sick, so it was hard. Then we dropped down to the river and found a cafe for coffee. Whew. A double espresso really helps.

We rode through a small town that was quite charming and had the stations of the cross along the main street.

Then some ordinary roads, a short stretch of “strada bianca” (unpaved roads) to get away from the highway.

Then up! The first few hundred metres were very steep. Then it got steeper: 18%. Some of us walked our bikes. Then it got even steeper: 20%!! All of us walked.

And yet we went on, into a beautiful nature preserve. Still up, but gentle. We kept going. Sunshine mostly but windy. I hadn’t eaten enough and was feeling the effort. It was hard. We kept going because what was the alternative?

We stopped at a curve in the road where a bunch of trails went off into the forest and ate everything we had with us. Not very much as it turned out.

But we kept going. And then, as if a mirage, I saw parked cars and a small building and people eating at tables. OMG! We were saved: we could get lunch!!!

By the time we got there, we only had 13km to go, mostly downhill. How delightful! So we had pasta, roast lamb, wine, dessert, coffee… And it was easy to ride to Urbino.

I was so happy to see the restaurant and to get a good meal. So very happy!!

The other day (now catching up on a post from a week ago), I rode with my buddies and had another great day, complete with an after lunch digestive and rain on the last 2 km. Very windy but otherwise just fine.

We left the hilltop convent riding down am extremely steep road past these ancient wash baths.

Then a few hours of riding over hills and through valleys. The countryside is beautiful and very green. Every hill has a town or church on it. This place looked so remote, I think it was abandoned. But who knows…?!

This farm sells mozzarella and other cheeses made from sheep’s milk.

Further along was a beautiful abbey. Lovely in the sunshine.

We went through some small towns.

Many had political posters up since the European elections were soon. The black poster is for the Forza Nuova right-wing party and says “Break the chains of Brussels” and the red poster is for a party called The Left and says “Europe needs a revolution.”

(Well, the results are in by now and the party who favors exiting the EU is stronger than before!)

It was tricky finding a place for lunch, but we saw there was a small restaurant about an hour and a half further along. I called them to check that they’d be open when we got there. Yes. Whew… We rode with an improved focus until we saw the sign. The place was in the middle of nowhere and yet had lots of tables and plenty of guests, including other cyclists. This photo shows Woody, Jan, and Jim.

We had a delicious meal, with wine and coffee, and when we were all done, the hosts brought out a trio of after-dinner drinks to go with the tiramisu: limoncello, grappa, and a bitter. The bitter was very tasty!

The final miles were rainy and windy but I still stopped to take a photo of this pole. It’s hard to see but it’s covered in blue ribbons. Apparently a son was born to this family and they are pretty happy about it: That’s a full-sized motorcycle up at the top of the pole!!!

And, just to put things in perspective, we finished the day with a banquet.