Part 2 of Ridgetops original post “September in Tuscany”. click here for the original post.

The passes and climbing were my favorite part. The temps were in the low 80’s with large thunderstorms in the evening that helped to cool things down for sleeping. Although ultimately we would end up on the island of Elba, right now I was only thinking that horseflys were the most evil creatures on earth and where the hell was the next wine stop! Luckily lunch was always there waiting and there were lots of towns in between where I could at least get a caffeine fix to keep me going. Riding through the towns brought many new challenges, but luckily the Italians and million German tourists were pretty good at watching out for us hapless American tourists. But honestly, the people we met were probably some of the nicest people I had ever run into. I couldn’t understand 99% of what they were saying, but the arm waving and smiling seemed to work.