Passo Di Bracco

After a late start out of Pisa we made our way to the coast and were rewarded with cycling tracks running through small Italian beach towns lined with beach side resorts where the who's who come to play on the Italian Riviera. The cycling tracks allowed us to make quick work of a fifty mile day and we soon found ourselves going through a small tunnel and coming out in the town of Lerici where we stopped at an information booth looking for the local camping sites. The quickest way we were told to find the camping was to go down to the water, find a certain street, climb back up a sizeable hill, and then we would find directions to three campsites...the first two were closed! The third site took us what felt like most of the way back to Pisa along the cliff side towns that you see in the pictures in our gallery, but we soon found the campsite on the hill. After pushing up the campside road and carrying our bikes down some stairs, were were rewarded with the most beautiful campsite view yet, and we decided that the effort of getting there was well worth it. In looking for the campsite we met an English couple, also looking for the mysterious campsite, who had cycled from Bilbao, Spain and were headed to Moscow via Italy and Greece, then to pick up the Transiberian Railroad to the coast to catch a ship to Japan. We exchanged information about the various routes we each were about to cover and shared a tin of cookies before settling in for the night. It was here that we first began to realize the work that lay ahead of us in the next day's ride to Sestri Levante.

Sestri Levante

"Men will learn the truth going through mountains" Ancient Taoist Saying

From the moment we set out from Lerici we were riding uphill. At times less steep, at times more challenging. push up and up and around the bend and up and up, and on it goes... And keeps going. Reminisicent of the Pyranees Mountains these hills are some of the most spectacular we have ever seen. The view of the sea spans the horizen, the sky is blue with no clouds, the motorcycles fly by us at speeds you can only imagine. Italians love their motorcycles and to go as fast as they can, there does not appear to be any enforcement against it.
We stopped now and again to refuel on water, cafe latte, salty chips, chocolate, and an occasional candy bar, this helped a little but not as much as the sheer perservance and determination that miralcously always seemed available to us whenever needed. Where does this come from? Finally we found ourselves at the ridgeline and then at the top of the mountain headed down towards the sea at Sestri Levantae.

Today we are being tourists, catching the train to Cinque Terre and staying in a hotel with real beds and a bathroom complete with shower and toilet seat...tomorrow on to Genova.