Corsica/Tuscany Day 11

Day 11:  Cycling Tuscany

Long day of cycling planned with a lunch stop.  We thought we might shuttle part way, but Bill, after pushing that last night, was discouraging everyone from shuttling, and instead, doing the whole ride.  The ride was beautiful, through the Tuscan countryside, but very long (66 miles), and hilly (~4,000 ft).  We started Piombino and climbed to Suveretto, a beautiful walled city that had amazing chocolate gelato.  We continued to climb to Sassetta and Castagneto Carducci,  and finally to the wine town of Bolgheri , famed for it's very expensive "super Tuscan wines", $200-$500/ bottle (Jeri and I were going to buy a couple of cases, but they wouldn't ship to NH, PHEWWWW!).  After a huge lunch of bruschetta and 2 types of pasta (ravioli and papparidella) and 3 wines, we had to ride 20 miles back to the ship.  Not a great idea to eat and drink and ride.

While we were at dinner, the ship left port, and by the time we had dessert, we had docked in Elba, our last stop before Rome.  Elba is best known as the place of exile of Napoleon Bonaparte after he was removed as Emperor of France.  It was also important early in the Iron Age due to large iron deposits  and forests used for furnaces for smelting the metal.  It continued to be a major player in iron production until it became deforested.  After this, iron from Elba was shipped to mainland Italy for production of iron implements.  Our port in Elba was Porto Ferrario (iron in Italian).

We are supposed to have a short, easy ride tomorrow according to Bill, but we noticed his nose somewhat longer than at the start of the trip.

(pictures hopefully in 2 more days when we get to Rome)