Day 9

After 8 days together the time has come for Dave to head back towards Grenoble where he will catch the bus on Saturday for the return journey to Wetherby. It has been a good joint venture, just a shame that because of his route back he has had to turn round before we got to Tuscany proper. Anyway a handshake at a busy junction at La Spezia docks and we were parted.

Still hot and sunny this morning, but by afternoon there were spots of rain and hints of thunder that never came. There is talk of rain tomorrow but it looks unlikely to me.

The ride out of LS is as usual, a hill and a couple of tunnels. Riding through tunnels is something you get used to - we must have done 30 or so on this trip alone. Put your rear light on, and front if you feel like it, although there is little point, pedal like hell, hope there are no potholes [not usually a problem] and get to the other end as quick as you can. I like it now, especially as they are usually flat and usually at the top of a hill, saving a final bit of climbing. The longest one was 2.5km or so.

The road drops down to the sea which I follow all the way to Via Reggio; as it is a Sunday there are plenty of cyclists in racing gear swishing up and down the boulevard. After several kilometres of beach, people, lights, stop-start etc I stop for a drink. A very calm patron serves me coffee and aqua frizzante then emerges from the kitchen with two enormous tomatoes he has grown in his garden. He also tells me that rain is forecast - this was the first I had heard of it so I was grateful for his thoughts.

I take a back road to Lucca that has the inevitable climb, then great descent to the walled city. I have never been to Lucca but always wanted to visit ever since friend Jacob played a gig there and got paid in olive oil and lemons from the estate where he played. It is a walled city, but not in a York or Avilla medieval way, more like a Berwick on Tweed Georgian style - massive brick ramparts. You can cycle on top of the wall, and a lot of people do. The city itself is medieval and beautiful - especially the Cathedral. Although there were plenty of tourists around it felt far from being the honeypot that York or Florence are; a very pleasant place to be.

I then took the road east to a hotel I booked last night on Booking.com. Danielle and I are both big fans of this website - it has never let us down. Today I arrived hot and sweaty to be greeted with "Mr Palmour, and you have a bike. You can keep it in your room if you like, I will go round and let you in" I could not have asked for more. I could actually, WiFi that works but that is another story.