Mark Dalton

Wednesday's excursion to Lucca was a lovely day out.. To get there I stayed off the main pay autoroute that goes via Firenza and took the ss64 that runs from Bologna to Pistoia and what a fantastic road it it as it winds its way across the hills and valleys that separate this are from the west coast. 

described better than I  can manage on away.com
"2. Via Porrettana (SS64), Italy 
This quiet 85-mile (138 km) backroad through the Apennine Mountains is positively bucolic. Linking Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, it leads northwest from Pistoia, just east of Florence, to Ferrara via Bologna. It crosses thick chestnut forests, the ancient spa resort of Porretta Terme, and small, sleepy towns."

I had planned to get to Pisa for a gratuitous tower shot! but the weather looked a little inclement near the coast and after getting lost on the autoroute around Pisa I decided to cut and run. There will be another opportunity I'm sure. 

A tasty quatro formaggio pizza for lunch in the Piazza dell Anfiteatro and bottle of merlot when I got back to the campsite topped off a great day. 

Thursday is about sorting out the everything and re-packing again - I will find the ideal balanced way of doing things. Living in and out of a few bags and pannier that I carry gets a bit difficult without some sense of organisation, which I am rubbish at ... always have been, I guess its time I learnt. 

I've looked up the camping availability for Imola and that seems to be ok. I will leave as soon as I am ready on Friday morning and should be there for early afternoon. 

until next week, Internet access might be a bit unavailable so will update again as soon as I can. 

in the meantime I uploaded a video from the day out to Lucca .. Its got a bit of rough editing in there, but you get the picture.. I need to figure out the microphone situation.. lots of wind noise when I try to get on bike footage and its a bit quiet if I'm a couple of steps away from the camera.. anyway you get a feeling of what's happening in each mini episode I hope.

More pictures on Flickr too.. 

next update - Imola WSB ...