Day 19

By happy chance Tim booked a villa that is right on the route of the Strade Bianchi / Eroica bike race. This is relatively new but very popular, running on the "white roads" of Tuscany. These are fully fledged local roads, full width with signs and kilo-posts etc, but unpaved and pretty rough with the local white gravel giving them their name. The race is in April and the sportive in June, so they are long gone for this year, but the route is permanently signed and a leaflet is on-line. So I found the nearest section and did a 50km stretch today whilst D&R were doing a cooking course with a local cook in her house together with Eric, Julie and the girls.
The route was interesting, tough and good fun; about a 1000m of climbing again through some great remote parts of the area, which included, somewhat incongruously a Sculpture Park. Various interesting things protruded from the bushes including this pair of UK phone boxes; entitled Incommunicado.