Nedly on his Treadly: San Vincenzo to Viareggio

Saturday December 4, 2010

My campsite for the night at a playground in San Vincenzo, Italy.

The view from my campsite in San Vincenzo, overlooking the train line and ocean.

Today I started pondering some of the deep questions of life. Like why does the nose constantly run in the cold? Does this have some kind of evolutionary advantage? Might be a question for Dr Karl.

I awoke at 10 am, a little later than hoped and planned, but not to worry.

The miserable wet weather continued with a heavy, cold shower just as I got on the road.

The way I've been traveling has all become quite a routine now, following the same formula every day. I know the contents of my panniers like the back of my hand. I can reach into one of them in the dark and pull the item I'm looking for out from the bottom, because I know where everything is. It makes traveling a little more efficient, seems I've got it down to a fine art now.

Today I also received some worried emails from the family who have been watching the news at home in Australia and seen how cold it is getting in Europe at the moment. That was the first I'd heard of the cold spell currently hitting Europe.

An email from Mum:

Ned, where are you? And are you okay? Very concerned as we hear that it is very cold in Europe and UK, we hope you are safe and staying somewhere, not riding or camping out in the cold.

Love Mum & Tex

And my response:

Hi Mum, and everyone, yes I am safe. I'm in Livorno, looking for the pizzeria that Rosanna was raving about, but she never told me where it was and there must be hundreds, so that makes it difficult. I tried ringing her too but couldn't get onto her, I think she's skiing at the moment.

The weather here in Italy hasn't been ideal, mostly wet and cold, but it's quite nice today, the sun is shining, although it's still a little cold.

I have mostly been keeping dry and warm.

I'm trying to get to Paris by the 14th so that I can see Air play.

I might see the leaning tower today, and might stay in Genova tomorrow if there are hostels there.

Bye for now

Well it's not too cold here yet, just a little cold, and rather wet, but indeed I expect it to get cold as I head further north and further from the coast, so that should make things interesting.

After the showers cleared, I was treated to some fine weather, as well as some beautiful scenery as the mountains fell into the coast.

On the Via del Littorale, between Quercianella and Calafuria, Italy.

The riding was quite pleasant; the only hiccup was when I got a puncture about 10 kilometres out from Livorno. But I've come to expect it with the tyres I'm running, so I just had to grin and bear it.

Repairing a puncture. Italy.

I got into Livorno (traditionally called Leghorn) which was quite a nice little town.

Livorno (Leghorn), Italy.

Someone creating some very large bubbles in Livorno (Leghorn), Italy.

I remember Rosie telling me about her visit here a few months earlier, and that she'd said the town was quite boring, except for the pizzeria she stopped at for lunch, which she described as the best pizza she ever had in Italy, and the pizzeria had won lots of awards for their pizzas. So I tried to call Rosie to ask her where this amazing pizzeria was, but alas she didn't answer. I think she was off skiing in the mountains in the Northern parts of Italy.

So I just settled for the first pizzeria I found, which was good nonetheless.

Pizza for lunch at a pizzeria on the Viale Italia, Italy.

I rode on, and the sun started setting.

The sun setting as I crossed a bridge on the Via Aurelia Sud, heading out of Stagno, Italy.

The next major town on my route was Pisa, of course famous for its leaning tower. It was pretty exciting seeing this for the first time in real life. My first impressions were "wow, it really does have quite a lean". As a civil engineer myself, it did have more of a lean than I expected.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy.

There were plenty of tourists admiring the attraction too. And plenty doing the clichéd photo that you see everyone do with the leaning tower - pretending to be holding it up. So of course I had to take one of those photos myself. "When in Pisa", as they say. I had to set the iPhone camera on a self-timer, and have a guess at where to stand and where to position my arms and hands, but after only a few attempts, I think I nailed it.

The obligatory "lean against the tour and pretend you're holding it up" photo.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy.

Afterwards, I stopped in at the nearest pizzeria for tea. Man I love pizza! Can you tell?

Pizza for tea at a restaurant near the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

After tea, I made sure I did some shopping because the next day was Sunday, and I'd already learnt the hard way that all the shops are closed on Sundays, I wasn't going to leave myself high and dry again.

Then I pushed out another 30 odd kilometres and came to a town called Viareggio. I stumbled upon a bit of a gold mine of good camping sites, or at least a few nuggets. There were some great spots under some pine trees, complete with tables and chairs, so I didn't hesitate to set up there. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph it so I can't show you how good it was. This screen shot from Google Street View will have to suffice:

My campsite for the night was under the conifers there behind the green seat. Viareggio, Italy.

It was a relatively early night by my standards; I was trying to pull the sleeping pattern back from where it's been the past week, which was a half-nocturnal sleeping pattern, really. Also I wanted to get a full day of riding in the next day since it was Sunday, the day in which the roads are quietest. I expected to get at least to Genova by the following night.