Under A Tuscan Sun.

The last post was from Germany, this one comes from Italy in the spirit of keeping the blog alive. The photo below was taken outside our rented villa in Tuscany. The village under the Rainbow is Bibbiena. The area looks good for cycling except that the roads are quite narrow. Despite this fact there are plenty of cyclists all on top end italian frames.

Pinarello Jim would feel at home. When we arrived here I found a bike and scooter shop smelling of oil with a Bianchi hanging on the wall outside. After venturing into the back of this cave I discovered three men huddled round a computer. One was a policeman on duty and the man on the keyboard seemed to be the owner. he was looking at pictures of himself in a recent bike race. There was a beautiful old steel Bianchi hanging in the workshop. The owner didn't seem bothered about renting me a bike so I left. My cycling exploits have therefore been limited to testing all the coffee outlets available in the local area. the fact is that round here an expresso is 90 euro cents and a cappucino is Euro 1.10, the average time to delivery of the product is two minutes. How on earth can they justify $4.50 for a coffee in New Zealand and take 20 minutes over it at some venues.