Monday, 31 December 2012
Baffin Island
Milan Power Shopping
Guy shopping is easy. We stop into a store that is the vendor of my favourite suit in my rotation at home. Coincidentally, it's Italian, and a giant store is a block from our hotel. I've got new space for a grey/blue/black after retiring some. Their tailor works sundays... so I get three cause it looks like it'll work out to about 25% less here per suit, and less if we can get this VAT refund going in the morning at the airport, which I think gets over another 10% back. The tailor measures for totally minor pant length as I'm off the rack proportions generally. On top of that, I grab a pair of jeans on their holiday sale. 55 minutes from walking in to check out, including a tailor whom I've never seen put pins in faster, like darts! Instructions are to pick up half hour before close which is easy given proximity to hotel.
Then we do Cindy's stops, but first get snacks by the Duomo. Women don't get three suit colors to pick from. The permutations and combinations are infinite. We sort of have a hit list of things to look for, but each store has about a 30% hit rate of what works from shelf to changing room. There's a marked difference in "niceties". At "my" store, Cindy was offered water, coffee, a nice chair, chocolates and a magazine. In the girls shops I range from being run over by Italians/tourists/girls/ladies rummaging hard, to acknowledgement that my presence could perhaps warrant a chair, to a couple places that were pretty nice to chat with. It's funny to watch - universal across the stores they want Cindy to put on tighter stuff. Italian style is fitted. And they could be partly right if we can cut back after the pasta bingeing. But I think too they're not picturing actual sitting and work being done as much as just walking around and looking good.
All in, if you're looking for clothes in addition to sight seeing, Milan is a great place to do it. The selection is unbelievable. The competition it produces is apparent too.
Last ride around Florence
Cindy's Birthday Cycling Tuscany
We take back roads to Ontignano then Compiobbi, where we snap a few photos at a beautiful little waterfall and vinyard looking back where we came from. Compiobbi is a flatter road on a river, bunch of cycling teams out. I would have liked to have ridden tempo with them for a bit (esp on the flats given their waists) but I was already winning by riding with Cindy in Tuscany. We made it to Molino del Piano for a coffee stop, then up to a small castle on the way to Santa Brigida.
From there we climbed to just before Olmo, stopped for a snack and a view of the setting sun, then back to Firenze on a downhill fast enough that even the kids on motard bikes couldn't really pass until towns.
All in, only about 60k, but we spent 5h enjoying it with picture and view and coffee stops. And the plethora of steep climbing makes it hard.
With the density of little towns, rolling hills, and innumerous little roads, you could be finding new routes for years here. They're all fine to ride with smooth road tires, but a 'cross tire could make some of the downhill gravel roads a bit more fun. I'm sure there's a thousand recommended cycling routes in Tuscany, but by total fluke, this is beauty on day 1 shows that finding routes is no harder than booking a ticket to Florence and riding right out of town. Just amazing!
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Italian Cars
I've seen bikes in so many little cars here, that I wonder why I buy big ones too. And I even try not to buy the biggest (and have stuck to my rule to never own a car with a V8... Or perhaps more accurately, one that needs a V8 to get it moving, which leaves a small future loophole for an overpowered little sports car, but I digress).
Assortment of small car photos. Lots of Fiats. Surprising number of electric cars. Traffic is chaotic and fast, but entirely respectful and polite. Toot toots to let you know they're there. Not a single pass by a car has felt menacing - they just execute and move on. It's amazing. I've oft heard that narrow roads and roads without bike lanes are the reason for cyclist and car "accidents", but this disproves that to a degree. I qualify that with speeds are slower here with the small streets, and cars are smaller. But it's really just attitude and approach to things.
There's tons and tons of Smart cars here, plus there's innumerous scooters. There's also handfuls of cars that make Smart cars look big. Mini's look like estate wagons!
Speaking of small and awesome, I heard an enthusiastic engine revving behind me while riding, but had no time to pull out the camera. A guy went zipping by, in loud but not obnixious fashion (little engines revving here seems so normal) in an origina Fiat Abarth 750 painted in... the colors of the Italian flag of course. He cooked around a mountain road corner, and it just looked right instead of reckless. There was room for me, him, and probably half a peloton worth of bikes on the road it was so small!
The bus pictured is shorter than a Ford F350, is electric, and could take dozens of people when packed full.
Cindy and were also impressed that full sized coach stile tour busses could also fit down these streets, and the driver didn't even seem fazed when a Renault Megane hatchback was pulled over with two wheels on curb, yet two still on street, and the bus just inched by with a tiny space to spare on both sides.
Italian Trains 2
Uffizi Gallery
We packed in as many hours as we could of Italian art and sculpture, including works of very famous artists such as Sandro Boticelli, a painting by Michaleangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Carvaggio.
Snack on their roof top patio which was just beautiful.
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