For the first time since we left the ferry I woke up this morning feeling like I might have had more sleep than not.... far from refreshed but at least not as hideous as most other mornings....perhaps a bed of acorns is the way to go after all. 

Whatever sleep there was though was rudely interrupted at 530 by a single bird with the most annoying call....it was like a Woody Woodpecker but running at one third speed and 10 times louder (any ornithologists fancy a crack at identifying it from that very fulsome description?) 

I actually quite like waking up to the bird song (not the birdie song which is something quite different!) but I would cheerfully have rung this animals neck given half a chance.

We had another great evening, this time sheltering around a table in the camp site owners house downing our pasta and a fair amount of her beer.

Anyway now up and about we make a plan for the day which involves getting to and through Florence any which way can....which is code for “less hilly please!” Given where we are that is not going to be easy.

We decide straight away to head back down the valley we are a third of the way up and pick up the B road we can see on the map. Our perhaps fuzzy logic is that B roads will still be hilly but less likely to have 20% hills than the very minor roads which will basically risk ending our attempt to get Rome at all let alone by Sunday. 

As usual the navigation takes some creative thinking and patience but we are rewarded  with lots of climbing although at a manageable rate and some spectacular views….

We somehow stumble across a little bar (I cannot express how unlikely this is given where we are!) in a tiny hamlet called Sparvo where we gorge on coffee and home made chocolate cake....breakfast of champions...

By 10am we have barely covered 20 miles and we are back up to around 2500 feet but then at last the road starts to dip down ....and it becomes one of, if not THE best descent I have ever experienced....perfect weather, perfect scenery, no potholes, fantastic switch backs and long sweeping curves....for 8 miles I am in heaven, it’s so, so good!

We know now we can tick another thing off our list of achievements…..Appenine mountains, done!

The road continues to now gently meander its way down towards Prato. We pause briefly at a supermercato to pick up some lunch and Marc manages to cause a scene (Doesnt he always?) by slipping on some errant lettuce in the shop. He was carrying a jar of tomato pasta sauce when he fell and so when the management rush to assist they see the smashed glass and then turn quite ashen at the enormous volumes of red gooey substance sprayed across the entire aisle of the shop…..here he is in the slightly shamed faced pasta soaked aftermath….

Fortunately Marc is ok of course and the fact that he now has to cycle the rest of the day in his pasta covered  cycle kit fills me with great joy every time I look at him.

We then pedal away across and through the outskirts of Florence and then finally after 60 odd miles we are right in the front of the duomo....time for ice cream….

....it feels great to be here and even better to know that we cycled here all the way from London....amazing! There is as you might expect eleventy billion other people all wanting to see the sights so we don’t linger any longer than we absolutely have to. 

Our camp site, to the south and east of the very centre of Florence is absolutely lovely and in fact if I’m honest it almost a bit too perfect, a bit “stepford wives” if you know what I mean?

Anyway we soon lower the tone significantly courtesy of our extensive laundry requirements and once we have been to the on site shop twice to buy beer (the first time I came back with zero alcohol beer and so Marc returned them and purchased more wisely) we are settled in. As we sit here now waiting for the washing to dry and I am typing we even experience our very own Italian nature watch….

It’s 4pm now we have a table booked at the camp restaurant for 7pm and we have beer.....what could possibly go wrong!