February 27 :: Spedaletto, Italy

February 27 :: Spedaletto, Italy :: 32km / 250km total

A late start to coincide with the late 10:30am opening of Abbazia di Sant Antimo, 10km down the road from Montalcino. The abbey was an 11th century building with plenty of history, and an interesting stop. Back on the bikes some rolling riding brought us to the base of a climb that took us over an hour to do... on the many switchbacks you could see members of our group both directly above you, and/or directly below you, pedalling the serpentine road. Nancy and Liz strategically took a shortcut up across a farmer's field, skimming about half a kilometre off one particular turn. Finally, finally we summitted and rolled along the high ridge, just touching the clouds, to lunch at Castiglione d'Orcia. A rocketing 4km descent and a bit of flats riding brought us to Spedaletto, a 12th century castle in which we stayed in 21st-century renovated accomodations.

The only drawback (initially) of the place was that, although we had a full kitchen and cooking facilities, we had no food... so Kenton and I rode off (unladen for once!!) up to San Quirico d'Orcia, a large town 8km away. After some trouble we had our saddlebags loaded, and rocketed back to the castle. Liz and Nancy (and Graham!) whipped up a great dinner, and we were asleep early, ready for tomorrow's ride.