We are in Italy again... Life is hard, eh?

The view from where I write:

Harlan caught this shot pointing our way out of San Francisco:

And he uses this shot to back up his claim that the Frankfurt airport is bigger than Texas:

We spent our first few days getting over the jet lag in Florence, our first time back since the month we spent there in 1984. We landed in a nice hotel with a view of the Duomo if you stick your head out far enough--look for the dome and tower beyond the rooftops:

It is a lot more crowded now in the historic center around the Duomo, but a positive change is the pedestrian area where it used to be crazy with traffic:

Some shots from wandering around...

There are small children having a very big time in this hammock:

A particular treat was catching up with my childhood friend Chandi Wyant, who is studying to be an official guide in Florence. It sounds like that involves something on the order of ingesting an encyclopedia in all its details. Chandi took us on a walk with colorful stories that made a beautiful place all the more intriguing:

Another treat was that we happened to be in Florence in the same couple of days that my cycling buddy from 1983 was there. Lauren and I met in a pizzeria on what was the first night each of us independently arrived in town and spent the next three months cycling and exploring together. She went on to start Ciclismo Classico, a great bicycle touring company.

We went together to the bike shop where she and I hung out most afternoons 36 years ago and I got to see the former owner's daughter, Cristina, now "la boss" in her own right.

A painting Lauren did back then of us riding in the Tuscan countryside still hangs in the shop basement:

Having been in Florence long enough to realize we weren't there nearly long enough, we took the train a couple hours west and then south along the coast to Campiglia Marittima. This is a ancient hillside/hilltop village. Here's the main street downtown (room for one car), with the door to the bike room of our little hotel on the right:

This time of the year the tiny piazza supports a bakery, four restaurants, and a bar:

We are here with the Common Swifts, "rondoni" in Italian, great clouds of these swallow-like birds, that circle at high speed just above the rooftops. They have nests under the tiles and in niches in the stone walls. They breed here but winter in the southern part of Africa; they can spend ten months in flight. The ones with nests sort of plop at their roof tile and then wiggle into an otherwise invisible slot; when they emerge they slide off the roof and fall back into flight.

I've made the next couple pix extra big so you can see the birds as more than black specks.

We've had several friendly, pretty rides so far, on our own and with local ex-pat cycling guide Mark Mahan. The roads are quiet, through classic countryside of olives, grapes, and villages.

There's some dirt:

And it's possible to find some truly steep stuff:

Ciao for now!