Italy Cycle Journal

Day 10 - San Gimignano

Day 10 – San Gimignano: May 22, 2005

So, the next 3 days I have three ‘optional’ rides to take me to nearby areas. Siena, San Gimignano and Chianti. But I'm at the same hotel until heading back to Rome on Wednesday.

The most challenging of the three is the ride to San Gimignano, so like the true masochist that I am, I decide to tackle that one first. It’s only about 40 miles round trip, so not a long ride, but it’s almost all uphill to get there, then up and down all the way back.

I’m pretty good on the hills, mind you, but this was some pretty steep riding. I consider myself a relatively advanced rider. Not like someone who does this every weekend, but I’ve ridden 150 miles in a pop and up and down the Santa Monica mountains pretty regularly.

But this ride still kicked my ass a bit. Not as bad as I was expecting, but I think that’s because I was expecting it to be pretty rough. As it stands, it was nice and got some great views of San Gimignano along the way.

I’ve included a photo or two of SG here so you can see what it looks like, but the town is comprised of old buildings and 14 giant towers.

Based on what I’ve read, the town was once one giant ‘dick-swinging’ competition. All of the wealthy home owners were constantly building bigger and bigger towers to out-do their neighbor. At one point, about 800 years ago or so, there were 72 towers. Now there are only the 14 left.

Can you think of a more obviously phallic way to say “mine’s bigger than yours?”

But the end result is pretty cool looking, I gotta say.

(Quick aside: if you want to read any of the real historic information, I’m not the expert on telling the real story. I’m including links where relevant – check them out. The educational ones are mostly from Wikipedia.com – a great resource. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s basically a free online encyclopedia that allows people to contribute add’l information and comments online)

Couple other things about San Gimignano:

If any of you ladies ever want to visit the city, I suggest you do not have any liquids before you head up there.

The one public restroom in the place had the basin set in level with the ground. Meaning, there was no place to sit. At all. A woman would have to squat to do her business.

One person I walked by said that the city was ‘magical’ – and, in a British accent no less, so it really did seem like something out of Lord of the Rings. And, it truly was. From 10 feet and up, anyway. Below 10 feet, it was about as magical as Katella Avenue outside of Disneyland – one tourist stand after another.

Riding back to the hotel was a tough, great, beautiful ride. Very mountainous, hilly terrain and lots of green. Few houses along the way. It was a little like riding Mulholland Highway between Malibu and Oxnard – very peaceful except for the motorcycles zipping by every few minutes.

I’m getting exhausted at this point, so I take a break under a tree for a minute. The tree is filled with flowers – and a faint, buzzing noise. So, I’m thinking – either this tree is electrically powered or ‘oh, shit.’ Turns out it was ‘oh, shit’ – I looked up and pretty much every one of the hundreds of little flowers had its own little bee that was looking a little bit pissed at the invader below. So, I beat a hasty retreat and continued riding.

The bees here in Italy are generally pretty huge. As opposed to the little dime-sized bees in LA, these are all between a quarter and a 50-cent piece in size (quick random thought – why doesn’t the 50 cent piece have a name? Half dollar is not any better. Penny, nickel, dime, quarter, dollar – they all have names. But the 50 cent piece is stuck with nothing but a multiple of its unit of currency).

Anyway, these bees are fucking big. And when I’m sailing down the side of a mountain, some of them hit me. Now, just imagine a bee the size of a half dollar hitting you while you’re riding around 70 kmh (42 mph). Every time it happened, it felt like I was getting shot with a goddamn pellet gun in the chest. One hit me in the face and I thought it was going to leave a mark (fortunately I wasn’t going that fast at that point).

Could use a little Gatorade for the ride, but all the shops are closed as I ride through the little towns – it’s Sunday, so not much is going on in the smaller roadside towns. Too bad, because I could really use a pizza and a Coke.

Back at the hotel, I head out to the pool and relax after the ride. All of the European men at the pool are wearing banana hammocks. Another mental image I’d prefer to leave behind.

Not much else to talk about – read, ate at the hotel restaurant and went to sleep.

Random thoughts:

I have fewer random thoughts – perhaps my brain is going into total relaxation mode, so I’m not thinking as much as I normally do?

Banana hammocks – ewwwww…

I figure I’ve lost about 5 lbs. since I’ve been here. I’m burning an average of 1500 – 2000 calories extra each day from the riding, probably more when you add in all the walking. And I tend to eat less when I’m riding – not more, because during a ride I don’t like to fill up too much. The big breakfasts and dinners have only been enough to maintain my basic calorie needs. If it weren’t for gelato, I’d be wasting away. If I can lose a couple more pounds before I get home, I’ll be a happy camper.

I don’t suggest anyone try to lose 5 lbs. in 10 days. Not typically the safest thing to do. I’m eating enough and taking vitamins to stay healthy – the weight loss is coming from burning lots of fat on 4-5 hour bike rides.

The waitress at dinner reminded me of Screech from ‘Saved by the Bell’

It's really fun trying to find links to include - who knew there was a restroomratings.com?

In addition to www.wikipedia.com, www.urbandictionary.com is good, too. It's a slang dictionary that you can contribute entries to.

posted by Joel @ 7:10 AM