Barreling along
Date: May 18 2025
Luckily there was no accommodation at the top of the Apennines for our next night, so we spent another night in Barberino di Mugello. It’s a big enough village to support two teams in the Canta Maggio event – a celebration of spring and local pride where, with typical Italian passion, they roll barrels, stage tug-of-war contests, and race carts madly down the hills.
We happened to be there for training day. On our way back from the Co-op supermarket, we were hustled off the road to make way for a louder-than-usual group rolling a barrel up the hill past B&B Colle Vignoni
. The whole town was draped in orange and green or blue and red bunting to show support for the two teams, and I bet the place will be heaving next weekend – happy, excited, noisy, and wonderful. This is why we adventure slowly.
Our early start was delayed by a tyre issue – not a puncture (we never say that word out loud) – and Jill’s navigational sorpresa del giorno was a back road out of town to avoid the main one. It quickly turned into a rough track – better than yesterday’s “road,” but still a few notches below, say, the Timber Trail in New Zealand. No worries. We rejoined the main road – along with about five thousand motorcyclists.
This was the old Florence–Bologna route, now mostly avoided by cars thanks to the autostrada, but it’s a magnet for every boy racer with a big bike. Winding, climbing, echoing with engine noise – it felt like biking on a Grand Prix track. I yahooed and laughed all the way up – Jill used rude words instead – watching the riders grazing knees on the corners and flinging themselves into the next.
It’s one long 700-metre climb – the most we’ve ever done in a day – and at the top we accidentally crashed a family gathering in a bar in Traversa (they didn’t mind, or even notice) for a much-needed coffee. Then we tootled across the highlands to Pietramala, passing the German war cemetery with its 30,000 residents. There’s not a single good thing to say about wars.
Our anticipated celebration at the highly praised (and only) restaurant in the village didn’t happen – it closed early – but we happily grazed on snacks from the local alimentari and felt quite content with being at the top of Tuscany.
We stayed at Casa Angela
Barberino to Pietramala
Max elevation: 929 m
Min elevation: 259 m
Total climbing: 976 m
Total descent: -395 m
Total time: 03:36:19
Battery use: 60%. And we weren’t even all that careful. Towards the end of the climb I was on Turbo when the slope reached 8% which is really wimpy, but it shows how unfit I am. Turbo is usually only for 14% and more.
[subscribe2]