DAY 65

This time last night I was sitting down to the best meal of my life with my dad and 2 brothers. Tonights dinner was a 'plate of bland' in a ditch by a bend in the road near a river. I keep thinking of a song by The Emotional Fish"If I hadn't seen such riches,I could live with being poor". There are a hundred reasons to go to Florence but to visit Il Latinos is reason enough (just tell them 'Fat Tony' sent you). We had an evening spent sitting back quoting Hollywood's finest;-Goodfellas, The Godfathers', Leon, Hannibal etc... while enjoying the Italians favourite of the deadly sins, Gluttony.To help us build an appetite, we went for a walk up to Plazza Michelangelo as the sun was setting to view all of Florence. Florence seemed to be surrounded by hills and I checked the compass from my pocket to see how the south-east was looking. Just my luck,the direction I was heading had the biggest hills of all. This morning I packed up all and left Florence in the company of the first other touring cyclist I have met since leaving Ireland. This young Korean guy joined me till the first petrol station. He was doing a tour of Italy and I filled up my stove with fuel. It only takes 70c to fill the tank and that will keep me going in spaghetti meatballs,porridge,coffee etc for about the next week.Today was a day of rolling over the finest of Tuscany's' hills passing vineyards, beautiful empty villages and olive trees. I am presently camped up just outside the medieval wonder of San Gimignano. This town,perched on a hilltop is visible from miles around cause of its 14 towers built in the 12th and 13th centuries for no reason other than to show off their owners great wealth.I only got 68 kms today but my legs are convinced there is a malfunction in the bicycle computer,but Im sure they could pedal double that distance tomorrow,for another evening like yesterday;-"just don't put too much salt in the sauce"