Mugello 2013, take 2

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

So it's finally arrived. After much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth the start of our ride through middle Europe was finally upon us.

Up at 0600 and away at 0730 in a cool but promising sunshine.

A quick hop was the order of the day with a coffee stop at Birchanger Services near Stanstead airport before Sunday Lunch that I'd pre-booked through Google.

We had no idea what we were going to or what the food would be like, but they started serving at 12 noon and, as our train was booked for 1340 it all fitted nicely.

Being the OCD type I rang them last night just to double check that we'd be able to eat at 12 explaining our tight schedule. 'No problem came the reply, we'll be good to go.

Having made steady progress we got to The Kennington, just off J9 of the M20, 20 minutes from The Chunnel, at 1150.
As we walked in, in our bike gear, obviously, the owner was waiting for us.

Not with the expected 'Sorry mate we don't start till 12.30' but a big friendly smile and you guys have a Chunnel to catch don't you? We got everything started 15 minutes earlier than normal as we don't want you to be late.'. What a pleasant surprise.
So carvery was had at £8.95, plus go back for seconds as well at no extra cost.

And due to their excellent service there was even time for a cheeky bonus pudding and coffee.

Hats off to them at The Kennington in Kennington. Top grub, excellent customer service and great value. Highly recommended.

From there it was a short bimble down to the tunnel which was swarming with BVB and Munich fans, some happier than others of course and onto the train.
As usual bikes were held back until the end of boarding,

But we got on eventually.

There were 8 bikes in total including 3 Germans and a Dutch guy who'd been to London for the Saturday night to watch 2 blokes playing Tubular Bells. He reckoned he had a 300km ride from Calais back to wherever he lived. He did tell me but like the ignoramus I am I hadn't heard of it.

From Calais to Bethune was taken along RN's rather than Peages but the constant 50/70 speed limits made for a pretty mind numbing hour and a half.

We've just had a quick look at Bethune town centre. It looks as if we've missed some sort of fete so we've probably not seen it at it's best - litter, fencing and cardboard boxes abound, but it's not somewhere I'll be hurrying back to. Next time I'm in this area I'll go back to Arras.

Tomorrow Luxembourg is calling, then on to Metz. We've decided to hit the Motorways early on to get some miles in, and take it from there depending on the weather.

Miles done today, 263.5, average MPG, 55.4.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

Day 2 (yesterday).

Due to the relatively poor Wi-Fi I couldn't get the photos to upload onto Photobucket so here we go, 1 day late.

Despite the miserable weather forecast I woke to beautiful sunshine after an excellent night's sleep. Well, excellent untl 6.30 when Hannibal, who was obviously intent on heading back across the Alps with his elephants, and clearly decided to follow us and unfortunately for me was in the room above mine, decided he needed to herd Dumbo and family down the stairs right outside my room.



But, as I say it was a beautiful day so I let him off. The bike was still there and still relatively shiny and I was a la Continent. Why wouldn't I be in a good mood?

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

I nipped out to get some breakfast and when I got back to the hotel had a bit of a chinwag with another guy who was staying at the hotel and was also on a bike. He was an interesting sort of chap, we had a natter about the bikes and he explained that he comes down to Northern France every year to pay respect to his father who died in the war along with many of his comrades at a place called, ironically, Paradise.
He'd done the 500 mile trip from Castle Douglas in 24 hours and told me that the hotel was a bit of a luxury. He'd only booked in as he was feeling under the weather and didn't want his trip ruined by a stinking cold. His preferred method was wild camping. Well, his actual preference is to 'sleep under a hedge in a bivi bag'. He reckons he can manage about 3 hours kip, then he's up and away to get a few more miles under his belt.

As if that wasn't impressive enough, to me anyway, he'd done the trip with all of his kit packed into the Rickman top box you can see in the photo, which was attached to this.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

As the weather was so nice we decided to minimise the use of Peages and use RN's where possible. Simon's Tom Tom set the route, 35 miles of Motorway to Arras then across country to Sedan, slightly north towards Bastogne and into Luxembourg.

We did stop for a quick brew and a doughnut just outside Charleville Meziers and very welcome it was too.

As luck would have, and it really was quite by chance we headed through/skirted (I'm not quite sure which) The Ardennes.
What a surprise, a delight and a joy that was. Fast sweeping bends, hills, valleys - really good biking roads. Note to self: Definitely worth a long weekend/week if you don't have time to go to The Alps.
I regret that I didn't get any photos of this area but I was just having to much fun to stop.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

As we headed into Luxembourg on the very busy motorway I was struck, and somewhat bemused by the number of lorries and cars from Lithuania. I knew they weren't from Latvia because their plates are marked LV and most of the vehicles just had the letter 'L'' on their plates. And there were more and more and more of them the closer we got to Luxembourg.





Doh! It did dawn on me. Eventually.

So we arrived in Luxembourg after a very pleasant morning's ride. We did skirt around the city for longer than we needed to as Simon had set the Grand Duchy of, rather than the city as a way point. But we got there in the end.
Luxembourg was my idea. I've had a yearning to go since I was a wee small boy and I absolutely blame 208, The Emperor Roscoe and the Power Play for this. As an impressionable youth A 'Grand Duchy' sounded exotic.
It was only when we were sitting at traffic lights that Simon told me he'd been through Luxembourg a few years ago and 'wasn't impressed'. Oh.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

Well Luxembourg certainly didn't let me down.
Although only small it is clearly very proud of itself. And rightly so.
I found it to be pretty, clean and very engaging. And everybody had a smile on their faces.
It's possible the gorgeous sunshine and 22c temperature helped but I was simply charmed by the place.
We'd only planned on staying for half an hour or so but ended up taking 2 and a half hours to soak it, the beautiful people and the heat up.

I'm not sure the pictures do it justice, I took plenty more but don't want to bore you's all. You'll just have to take my word for it.
Certainly the warmth and location had given these 3 blokes the horn.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

Clearly a deeply religious city I also learnt something about The Almighty whilst I was here.
And I have a new found respect for his music choice.
God is clearly down with the kids .
God is clearly a happening kind of guy/girl.

We weren't the only bikers(?) I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that word tbh, in town.
A contingent of Dutch Gold wing owners had nipped across the border as well.

But the undoubted star of the show was this guy.


He was all on his own (for very good reason, let me assure you) in a small park just below the old city walls. And he was having the time of his life. Singing, skipping, dancing even Irish dancing at one point (which I took as a personal honour). There was some debate as to whether he was genuinely rehearsing for something or was just the local Nutter.
Either way he was in a happy, happy place and bloody good for him too. If the world had more people like him it would be a better place. Take a bow sir.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

I did take this picture especially for the Old School amongst you.....

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

And from here it was a quick blast down the very busy A31 to Metz.
We stayed at the Metz Nord Mr. Whippy Ibis which appears to have some sort of internal Ibis awards and I'm not surprised. It was excellent value for money and is most definitely recommended.
We had planned on going into Metz for a look round but tbh we were just too tired. A good excuse to come back methinks.
Today (yesterday) was one of those days that will live long in my memory.
Given the weather forecast and my ignorance of where I was heading I had expected very little other than a 5 hour slog through wind rain and spray.
What I got was sunshine, stunning scenery, a beautiful city, good company, great coffee, humour and wonderful motorcycling.
If no other day on this trip is as good as today (yesterday) it won't matter. Today (yesterday) will have made the whole thing worthwhile anyway.
Total miles 255.5
MPG 55.4

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

So, on to today, Tuesday. Let me know if I'm boring you won't you?

Today was the day the weather was definitely going to be against us. The long term forecast had warned us, Le Meteo had warned us and the lady at reception warned us when we checked in last night. It was going to pour down on us for the whole day. Non stop, constantly. And not just a bit of drizzle either. It was going to be an absolute downpour, a deluge and we were going to get a thorough, thorough drenching from start to finish.
So I thought I'd pop down to the bike, make sure she was still in one piece and had had a good night's rest, and gauge what the weather Gods had in store for us today.

Well what a lovely surprise. Beautiful sunshine once again.

But we weren't alone in the car park. There were. 6 of these beggars on their way from Monaco to Spa.

I was chatting to one of the drivers and he told me how they don't like Monaco. I have no interest in F1 at all but Monaco is the one place I'd like to watch it. The Renault bloke agreed, it's fine for watching but no good to work at. Because it's obviously cramped for space all of the support team crews, drivers and equipment are housed over a km away from the pit area and everything has to be hauled over by hand. I did offer to ease him of the burden next year but was rejected at the interview stage.

As the weather forecast had been so crap we'd decided to eat in the hotel before setting off and decided to go ahead anyway, despite the sunshine.
When you check in to an Ibis/Campanile they always/ask if you want breakfast. I've never said yes before but it was reasonable enough-ish.
9 Euros for all you can eat/drink. 3 croissants, a bowl of corn flakes, half a baguette, jam, 2 coffees and 2 glasses of orange juice. Is that decent vfm? I'm not so sure it isn't.

Lift by Dainese.

Once again Tom Tom was going to lead the way. I'd looked at the route planned by my shitty Garmin and it didn't look too clever going via Saarbrucken, Strasbourg, Basel and Bern and on dual carriageway all the way.
I had spent some time before we set off downloading Mapsource, planning a smashing route for today, downloading the hotels and uploading everything into the Navi III. I'd checked it and double checked it before leaving the UK but when I asked it last night to navigate the route it had accepted it told me the planned route wasn't covered by the maps I have on my Navi III. Fecking useless fecking shitty thing.
Bloody good job for Tom Tom.
Rant over.
So today was another voyage of discovery. I've looked at my map tonight and still can't quite figure out which way we came. We headed south on the A31 to Nancy, didn't see RobertG though, then the A23 to Epinal and the N27 to Luxeil les Bains.
Ironically these were also mainly dual carriageways but largely traffic free and skirting The Vosges mountains made for a very pleasant morning's ride. Once again France has surprised me. The Vosges mountains look well worth a return trip. I've always been keen to head straight down to The Alps but I've had my eyes well and truly opened on this trip. Isn't that part of the joys of these sort of holidays, discovering new and interesting places you'd never considered before?
Anyway, I digress.
So we meandered along without a care in the world. Until Simon realised he was running low on petrol. Not his fault, to be fair. We'd confidently passed a petrol station when he had half a tank full left, not realizing it would be the last one for 65 miles or so. By now he was below a quarter left and slight concern was turning slowly but surely into grave concern. So we took a minor detour and found a supplier of sans plomb within a few kms..

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

Whilst we were at the garage I noticed this

I've no idea what the equipment was for and I certainly wasn't about to ask for a demonstration.

We nipped back to the local village for a coffee where I was greeted like a long lost buddy by a very friendly local. Half an hour was had drinking in the scenery, coffee and ambience and doing something I so rarely do - enjoying the moment.
Coffee (again)

Long lost buddy taking a stroll,

Scenery but not a great photo, sorry.

And then onto the border with Switzerland. I had concerns about this part of the trip. Obviously I'd be expected to show my passport, bike insurance, V5, empty my panniers etc etc etc but I hadn't quite figured out this Vignette malarkey. Could I buy it in France? I'd been told I could buy it in Switzerland but was worried that plod might nick me before I'd had chance to do so. Where on the bike should it go? If I stick it on will it get stolen? I know I can't just take it in my pocket as this is instant imprisonment. You can imagine for an OCD-er like me how troubling all this was. Worries, worries, worries.

But we were here now and I had to face my demons. Customs was eventually negotiated having taken our place in the lengthy queues

and the vignette was bought at the petrol station 10 yards from the border. Surprisingly I was allowed to pay for it in Euros,, so I did - 32 of them.

As I faffed and fiddled about to make sure it was stuck on centrally (in creeps the OCD again) we heard the roar of a sports bike and scutching round the corner came a Fireblade and rider, with no crash helmet. 'Well I barely came any distance' she said

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

efore I knew it The Alps were looming in on us, we stopped at Bern for a 10 minute break and some snap and I had my1st meeting with the legendary surly and arrogant Swiss personality. I had been warned in advance of the trip and the guy in the services did his best to enhance their international reputation. But never mind, he was the Ying to The King of Luxembourg's Yang.
Grainy picture of The Alps. I know it's a crap photo but I was so excited I had to stop and take it anyway.

The monsoon we'd been promised was right on our tails now. Although we'd been lucky again all day there was no doubt it was there, as clear as day and it didn't half look like a monster of a storm so we decided to crack on.

As we were heading back to the bikes I realised I'd quite inadvertently parked under a poster advertising a forthcoming Festival in Interlaken, where we were heading for. Check out the support act, spooky eh? I don't even like Slayer. Maybe God's trying to tell me something.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

The plan today was to go up the Jungfraujoch mountain railway from where the views are supposed to be stunning. However we woke up to pouring rain and cloud so low I could plait it.

Fortunately the hotel has a live video feed of the view from the top and to call it uninspiring would be an understatement. The temperature at the top was showing as -8 so it was clearly (pardon the pun) a non starter. Especially at the best part of £130 a ticket.

The lady at the hotel recommended a picturesque train ride into Lucerne so that was what we did. Had we gone up the Jungfrau this is the type of train we'd have gone on

We didn't have to go very high before we saw snow that had fallen this morning.

Lucerne is a lovely place, though very small. Tourist information told us we must see the famous wooden bridge that was built in the 14th Century. Most of it was destroyed by fire in 1993 and subsequently rebuilt so what we were actually looking at was a late 20th century bridge. But it was very pretty.

Switzerland being famous for it's watches I was hoping to pick up a nice Rolex at a decent price. Having checked the prices, however, they were no cheaper than in the UK, even after local tax had been removed. What was noticeable was the no. of Asian people spending money as if it was going out of fashion. Chinese tourists were literally running off the coaches and bathing people out of the way to get to their chosen counter first. Very odd.
One of the jewellers did have a very interesting clock, however. Some time was spent trying to figure out it's finer workings.
I've got a photo but will have to add it at a later time as photobucket has once again started playing up.

A wander round Lucerne

Then back onto the train for Interlaken.

And back to the hotel.

No, not that one.

Nor that one.


This one.

It's a 2* and it's clean, tidy and well located. The staff are very friendly and helpful. Not a bad place to stay for a couple of nights. And it would appear other people agree. Our waitress was telling us this morning that the hotel is fully booked until the end of October, apart from one night in October when they have 1 room available.

Back to the room, pack ready for tomorrow and Italy here we come, God willing.

Miles ridden - 0
MPG - 0

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

Thursday.

Woke to a relatively chilly 8c and overcast but dry, though the roads were wet.
1st thing to do was fill up with petrol but neither of Interlaken's petrol stations were manned and we wanted to pay in cash.
The good news, however, was that their automatic card machines also take cash. The bad news is I put 40 Swiss Francs in, only 20 registered,I got no change and there was no-one I could berate about it. Not a great start. On the plus side, although it only registered 20 FSW it actually gave me 20.01 worth of petrol.
1-0 to the TimMeister methinks.:hahaha:

So off we set, following Simon's Tom Tom again. Thank Goodness he's got it, I'm still ponky about my fecking shitty fecking Garmin letting me down, though why I'm surprised I don't know. Fecking shitty fecking thing.

And breathe.......

So off we set. Today's journey wasn't about sightseeing, it was more about getting to Florence in time for a gander at the circuit in a bid to familiarise ourselves with the layout before hoardes of wannabee Rossi's/Marquez's descend upon it over the weekend.
That said the ride from Interlaken to Lucerne was simply stunning. Only time and chance for 1 quick photo.

The heaven's opened in Lucerne, but only for about 2 minutes and as this is the only rain we've seen whilst we've been riding I'm certainly not complaining.

From Lucerne it was straight down the A2, through the Gotthard Tunnel (the Gotthard Pass is still closed), into Italy, skirt round Milan then onto the A1 which would take us all the way to Florence, knocking on Mugello's door on the way past.
There was a major hold up leading up to the tunnel however. 10-15 miles of standing traffic. I don't know if filtering is allowed in Switzerland but we didn't have time to join the party so filter I did. It was interesting to note that almost everyone, from all nations, actively moved across to let us past. Everyone except the flucking Swiss who, conversely, actively moved across to try to block our way. A quick blast of Daniel O'Donnell through the RT's speakers soon shifted them though. That'll learn them.:rasp:
I ought to add an apology at this point. Earlier on in the RR I alluded to the well known arrogance and unpleasant attitude of the Swiss. That was based on what I'd been warned to expect and my experience in the Service Station confirmed it. Him apart though I found Swiss people, like everyone elso on this trip, thoroughly engaging, warm and incredibly helpful. I may have to re-think my opinion of the human race. aranoid:

Now,I know motorway's aren't everyone's idea of fun motorcycling but the run from The Gotthard into Italy was just something else. Superb road surface, near empty roads, everyone else was still partying on the other side of the tunnel, long sweeping bends and scenery that takes your breath away. We did pass a large group of bikers on varying machines but all in their club colours. I offered them a friendly wave but they were all far too cool to acknowledge the presence of a high-viz clad buffoon on a Touring bike. Well, they were as cool as they possibly could be given that their club was called "Hot Wheels MCC", I kid you not.

As you can imagine we passed through a lot of tunnels in Switzerland and it was interesting to note how quickly the ambient temperature rose inside them. The Gotthard itself reached a thoroughly pleasant 35c.

No time to stop for coffee until we got into Italy and hit the first services.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

Half an hour's beak for my 1st taste of Italian Pizza ( why does it taste sooooo much better here?) a bottle of fizzy water and a 'comfort break'. Back out to the bike, bright sunshine, 22c and the back of today's journey now broken. What could possibly go wrong?
I'll tell you what could go wrong.
The bike.
I pressed the starter button and nothing happened. Nothing at all. Nada, rien, zilch.
Great. Just fecking great. Why the feck did I buy another RT after all the problems with my last one.
So I checked and double checked. Took a deep breath and tried a few logical things.
Is she in neutral? Check.
I haven't inadvertently hit the kill switch have I? Can't be that, it's the same switch as the starter switch.
Take the key out, clean it, try it again. Nothing.
Okay, I'll squirt some WD40 into the switch. Nope, no better.
It's not the notorious fuel pump controller because she won't start. If that was the problem she'd start but die when I opened the throttle. Anyway it won't be that as I have a spare, having been caught out before.
I was left with no option other than to call BMW breakdown and face the humiliation of having my shiny expensive motorbike hauled onto a lorry in front of hundreds of bikers, tourists and laughing Italians. Great.
Out came the phone. No signal. FFS. This serves me right for being a bad person. Feck feck, feck.
Simon handed me his phone and the call was made to BMW Motorrad in London. I was armed with my exact coordinates, thanx again to Tom Tom but the receptionist at the call centre said these were of no use to her and she preferred to Google Maps!
Despite my best efforts to explain my whereabouts she hadn't a clue where I was so passed my details on to someone else who promised to call me back.
Whilst I was explaining my problem, however, I noticed that although the dash was working, mileage, and MPG etc, both the temperature gauge and fuel indicator were completely blank. 'Odd', I thought. So I decided to apply some Senior Tech logic to this. If she thinks I've got no fuel she won't start. So I gave her a vigorous shake, much to Simon's amusement who thought I had simply lost my temper completely and lo and behold my engineering expertise had come good. Up popped the fuel and temperature gauge and we were away.

I have to say, this apart, the bike has been an absolute dream. Comfortable in the extreme, certainly far easier on the limbs than any car I've ever owned, eating up the miles, relatively frugally and just doing everything I would want her to do. Fingers crossed today's episode was a minor blip.

A couple of hours later and we had reached the promised land.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

And having just taken that snap we only bumped into Tom Cruise who very kindly agreed to have his photo taken with the bike.

Okay, okay it's me. And before anyone asks why I'm not smiling, I am. That's my happy face. You don't want to see my grumpy face.
Just for the record, and contrary to how it looks I really am having a brilliant time. This was always meant to be a special trip and it has delivered in spades, far exceeding my hopes.
And the racing hasn't even started yet.......

Miles covered today - 399
MPG- 57.6

Edit: I noticed there's a free concert at the circuit tomorrow evening. Disappointed to report Slayer aren't playing.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

A day at the circuit today. We decided to avoid the Autostrada and took the back roads which made for some excellent riding with some lovely scenery.

And in no time we were there.
You can't buy General Access tickets just for the Friday, only for Arrabbiata and the Simoncelli stand. As we have tickets for Saturday and Sunday already, that's what we did.

Of course, this one had to be done, I make no apologies for it.

And into the circuit. What a superb place to watch motorcycle racing. A brilliant view means you can see the bikes for half a lap, as opposed to Le Mans last year where they were in view for about half a yard.

A terrific backdrop and enthusiastic commentary in both Italian and English adds to the spectacle. And so do these boys.

Back down to Florence via the scenic route and once again we bumped into Tom Cruise.

We'd seen some lovely looking Pizzerias on our way up to the circuit and decided that we'd eat at the 1st one that was open. Not exactly what we had in mind scenery wise

But it was nice inside and the food was excellent and cheap enough.

I had noticed it on the way out to Mugello. It stood out because of the pretty yellow flowers weaved into a "Pizzeria" sign.

However closer inspection revealed that the pretty flower weavery was in fact yellow cups pushed through a wire fence. Oh those romantic Italians....

We did actually pop into Scaperia on our way back through the village. Not a deal to see other than a pretty town hall.

Not much to add really. I'll not bore you with what happened during free practice, no doubt you'll already know. I don't imagine I'll have much to add tomorrow or Sunday either as we'll be at qualifying and the race itself. If I capture any relatively decent shots I'll try to add them, failing that I imagine my next post will be when it's all over and I'm on my way back to Blighted.
Oh, the day pass for Arrabbiata corner including the uncovered grandstand was 35 Euros.

Miles ridden - 65
MPG - once again 57.6, hmmmmm.

Have a great weekend all. If you're going out take care.
Thanx for reading, if any of you are sticking manfully to the challenge!

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

One or two snaps taken at the circuit today
Parked up, ready to go

On the go

Elbow down Marquez style.

Can't stand the lad but he can surely ride a bike

Those of you who've been will know that TV doesn't give you any idea of the noise or speed these bikes generate. I can't replicate the noise but hopefully these pictures might give you a wee idea of the speed.

Time for lunch, Italian style. Not quite sure why Max Biaggi felt the need to photo bomb the pic though

Time for pudding, Italian style

A rare picture. Bradley Smith - upright.

Another rare picture, Calvin Crutch low - also upright.

And then they were heading back to their motor homes leaving the minions to clear up after them. I can do that, gis
a job.

Just time for a quick coffee and some Jammie Dodgers, Italian style.

The paddock is already full of rumours about who's going where next season.
Pol to Tech 3 appears to be a done deal. Maybe Cal will go to Suzuki along with Hopper, though De Puniet has been testing with them? But Tom Cruise to Ducati? Improbable as it sounds the camera doesn't lie.

And the test rider is quite clearly a fanny magnet.

Managed to share a few words with Cal at the end of the day about cycling. Given that he was a smashing lad and happy to take the time to talk I decided against telling him to stop fecking moaning and he might get the ride he deserves.

That's it for now. Ciao a tutti.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

Nearly forgot, sorry.
You can pay to have a lap around the circuit on the back of a biposta Ducati GP bike.
It's clearly getting popular as it used to be one bike ridden by Randy Mamola for 3 laps. Now it's 2 bikes, various riders and it's one lap.
They don't hang about either, really clattering on around the circuit. And if you've not been frightened enough by that they do this to you at the end of the lap - just for a laugh.

There were plenty of people queueing up today but the 1st one was a wee fat woman who got all her bike gear on, got out onto the circuit but then refused to get on the bike, before waddling back behind the pit wall.
I'll bet whoever paid for her to have a go was delighted.
Especially at..............





£2,000 a go........

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

Sunday

A great day for this bloke.

A good day for this bloke

Not such a great day for this bloke

Though these people didn't seem to mind too much.

And he took it in good spirit

And some people just wanted to kneel at the altar of the G.O.A.T.

But for some people it was all too much.

There's nothing like a spritely, alert Marshall, and he was nothing like a spritely, alert Marshall.
We took a slightly different route back from the circuit today to avoid the traffic heading for the Autostrada and were rewarded with a wonderful ride along twisty roads through stunning scenery and past some very, very expensive looking villas,
Around one corner was this stunning view across Florence.