Perfecto!

I’m not even sure where to begin.  After a good night’s rest, I awoke just in time for lunch: proscuitto, pasta, wine, and espresso.  The proscuitto was so good, and the espresso- mama mia!

Our first ride of the tour was to the “Museo dei Campionissimi.”  It felt good to blow the cobwebs out of the legs after so much travelling.  The museo was incredible.  Unfortunately, due to a user ID-10-T error, I deleted my morning pictures, including the one of me with Mario Cipollini’s bike, d’oh.  But was able to go back and get some photos of his bike and Alessandro Petacchi’s bike.

What a dream come true for a cycling fan.  There were bikes from all of the famous Italian cyclists including perhaps the most famous: Angelo Fausto Coppi.  Coppi caused a large division in his day by having an affair.  Pope Pius XII even asked Coppi to return to his wife and refused to bless the Giro d’Italia when Coppi rode.  His visable defiance to the Churh lost him many fans.

The museo also has a bicycle built on DaVinci’s original drawings:

The cycling for the day included some rolling hills, that turned out to be a bit brutal for someone used to the flat farmlands of Indiana.  But, the scenery made up for all the burning my legs were enduring.

After returning to the hotel for a quick shower, the group met up for wine tasting.  The hotel is the site of a vineyard and is also the launch site of the first car that the Fiat-Chrylser merger are producing.  The car launch takes place in one week and the local roads are a testing ground for the new car; hence several “car test” signs we encountered while on the road. 

Above is a photo from the cellar.  The area smells like grapes and wine. 

Not sure how to rotate the above picture. Fixed!  There are rows after rows of bottles of wine.  Someone has to come by periodically and turn the wine.  At this stage in production it is sealed with a metal cap.  Before the final production stages, the cap is removed along with a sediment that has collected and a cork is inserted into the bottle.

After wine tasting, we all converged again for dinner.  The meal was a two hour affair capped off with frutta speziata e sorbetto and espresso.  The food here is unlike anything I have ever had.  If I were Italian I would be so angry that a place like Olive Garden can claim to have Italian food.

With a full belly and tired legs, ciao ciao!

Em

ps- I apologize for any grammatical or spelling mistakes (I know my mother is reading this).  Given the time of night and the number of glasses of wine, mistakes are inevitable.