Tuscany bikepacking adventure day 1

The rest of the story will coming during winter 2023 - stay tuned

We arrived to Bologna airport from Finland with Finnair. Regional train from Bologna to Prato (Firenze) was easy - you buy a ticket for your bike too. We were only ones with bikes  - so there was space, but bikepacking bikes can be a pit big in case a bike rush hour...

By the way - May I introduce who we are on this trip:
The super lovely beauty in my pictures is my great bikepacker friend Vivi and her bike, Fairy and then the other one is me with by bikepacking bike Salsa. So let to story continue...

While easy cruising through town we saw first car accident just in front of our eyes. Red light accident - so little damage to cars I hope. So the city cycling was exciting for these two Finnish bikepackers - especially when we were warned by several people about the rally spirit of the italian drivers 🚙😁 I have been training a bit while lived Arma de Taggia for a year - but this was a quite a reminder. 

Had late lunch at Comeana - which was the cheapest lunch during the week. Talked lot with locals. Noticed my italian was so rusty, and I was mixing lot of with my more fluent portuguese, but it was super fun talk with locals! 🤩

After Comeana we arrived the gravel trail with some hilly asphalt sections. Soon arriving to National Park trail turned to be technical - and of course uphill so no way we could bike with our bikepacking setup. So it was surely couple of hours hike-a-bike kind of moving forward. Beautiful forest trails mix with wider technical forest roads.

Arrived to Vitolino which is tiny quiet town. Did not see any restaurants and cafes. I was dreaming a nice warm cup of cafe even it was evening already. After leaving Vitolino we did deep dive in to the valley down and deep uphill again...great check for breaks as it must have be one of the steepest down hill...

Wild camping by the road and under olive trees.
Weather during the night was really super windy and the hill walls made it really sound even more. Later we noticed that there was actually wind warnings for the night and even for the next day. Quite happy to have luck so that our tent was away from the howling wind. Cars that were turning in the corner liked to sound the horns in the narrow streets - and of course the monastery's bells (every hour - except night, but early as the rooster) were not that usual sound to sleep to. ((And a bit sliding ground under the tent...was my fault 😁)) But I slept when I slept like a baby.

Super happy you come along with me Vivi to share again one more bikepacking adventure with me - it's never same without you 💖!!

​More fotos: krisses.kuvat.fi
GPX you can find from my Strava or Komoot - or just send me a message. 

​ps. next days stories will be shorter 😁

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