Europe Day 4: 0 Miles

Siena, Italy to Florence, Italy

I woke up this morning to strong downpours and rain in the forecast for the entire day. The weather was moving north in the direction I would be traveling and was forecast to intensify mid-day. Luckily there is a train from Siena directly to Florence where I planned to end my day anyway. It is supposed to rain on and off for the next few days, so taking a train to Florence was an easy decision. It was better to make forward progress while staying dry and warm than to wait out a storm in Siena.

The hostel in Siena was a great choice for last night. I opted for the slightly cheaper 10 person dorm over a 2 person room that would have been shared. The dorm ended up having only 2 others staying in it and with a separating wall I essentially had the space of 6 beds to myself. There was a large group of teenage students staying at the hostel who occupied most of the 2 person rooms on the first 2 floors. I was happy to be away from their noise in the quiet dorm room on the 3rd floor.

When I headed down for breakfast this morning I noticed that none of the cyclists who were staying at the hostel had left with their bicycles. I assume everyone was staying put and out of the rain. I instead headed to the train station in Siena which was about half a mile away. There I met a couple from New York who also had bicycles. They were nice enough to help me with the ticket machine and I later returned the favor by helping them lift their heavy e-bikes onto the train.

The train was set to depart at 11:18 but arrived about 20 minutes before the departure time. This was great because it allowed enough time for all of the cyclists to load their bikes onto the train. There were hooks to hang 5 bikes but when the train was finally loaded there were more than 10 bikes on board.

I never intended to keep continuous tracks with my bike on this trip and I’m almost happy I broke the trip up so early on. It relieves the pressure of stringing together days. Unlike the Trans Am where I wanted to make all forward progress by bicycle, this trip has no goal of crossing the continent continuously. If it’s not a great day to ride and I can make forward progress by some other means I plan to do so.

In the next few days I should make it to Massa, where I plan to head north towards Milan. This stretch does not have a great route to cycle so I may instead follow the coast to Genoa and take the train from there to Milan. I will have to plan it all out, but it’s nice to have options.

The train ride was a relaxing 90 minutes and dropped me off in the center of Florence, approximately half a mile from the hostel I will be staying at for the next 2 nights. I was a little early for check in but found a bar for a beer and a burger before returning to the hostel at 2:30 to get settled in my room. Another great place and only $25 per night.

The rest of the day was spent walking around and exploring Florence. Tomorrow I plan to check out a few museums and tourist sights and then I will hopefully be back on my bike on Monday.

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Musings:

• American music is everywhere, even when I walk into a place where not a single person speaks English. The familiarity of the music has actually brought a bit of comfort when I find myself in a place that I can’t communicate clearly. It’s nice to feel not so out of my element even when I have no idea what’s going on around me.
• Why is it so difficult to bring a bicycle on a train in the United States? I’ve looked into doing a long weekend in New England on my bicycle but it is nearly impossible to time the trains out to make it work. Today’s trip was a breeze and a great example of what we should have in the United States.