Day 12 Tues 2018-10-16 Castellina - San Gimignano

Day 12 2018-10-16 Castellina - San Gimignano. (Cycled 40km, 327m )

With an early breakfast, still no WiFi to distract us and wanting to get to the tourist town of San Gimignano for lunch, we headed down the scenic SP51. I topped out at 60km/hr as there was a slight headwind and my jacket is not very aerodynamic- it was a lot of fun to descend from 560m to 120m in about 10km.

Karen met us in the car at the bicycle hire store on the other side of Poggibonsi. The four of us set out for 7.5km climb up 220m to San Gimignano.

We found the town square, and scouted out a possible lunch location. Most had only paninis, so we enjoyed take-away pizza on the steps of church in sun.

Desert was gelato. We started queuing at the “Best Gelato in the World”, and as the queue was long we opted for the “World’s Best Icecream”. It was very tasty and good energy food for the descent back.

We were a bit early for Cicliosport opening due to lunch time siesta. We are amazed at how many businesses and schools still practice this break.

The bikes were returned with no issues (ebikes @ €145ea and carbon @ €180). We learnt a lot about ebikes over the week, especially about managing assist power and also taking advantage of regeneration braking.

Before dinner, we looked around the old town of Castellini, and were amazed by the tunnels built inside the wall. These days they housed wine casks, restaurants and the professional photographer with amazing local Tuscany landscape photos.

I bought a Chianti Classic cycling jersey (€64) and we purchased some presents (the soft toy Boar and Fiat500 socks)

Dinner was at a restaurant in the church square which had been run by the same family since 1892. Only the English speaking patrons were queuing at 19:30 when the restaurant opened.

I ordered buchetta, tortilini with shaved truffle, and tiramisu for desert. All was great, as I love Italian food!