Viva la Giro d'Italia

After what can only be described as the worst night of sleep ever we finally woke to the day we get to go and see the start of the Giro.  

breakfast dressed in our aussie uniform

The aircon in this place is very hit and miss - 2 nights ago it was so cold we turned it off, and yesterday it was just blowing hot air - nothing cold no matter what we did to it. 

Just before we went to breakfast it started to blow cold air so we left it alone, preferring to rug up rather than not have it.  Humidity is the real killer here - it was only 27 at most yesterday but must have been a lot hotter than that in our room.  There are windows but no screens on them so when we were desperate for any kind of cooling at 4ish in the morning I had no option but to open one - hoping that the bug spray on the boys would prevent them being eaten by mozzies.  Didn't work really well - Nate has bites on his back and Tony has tons of them too, including on his ears - ouch!

Not surprisingly then it was a sluggish start to the day - we got reception to call our cab perhaps 15 minutes later than planned so not too bad in the end. The taxi driver didn't seem to thrilled that we needed to be dropped at the Piazzale de Michelangelo as he knew what the traffic would be like, considering it was the start point of the giro today. 

Google maps told me it was only 7 or 8 km's away from the hotel but it felt much longer.  We got there just before 9.15 and they had just blocked part of the road off at the bottom.  The piazzale is on the top of a hill of course so we had no choice but to foot it the rest of the way.  Our driver tried to argue with the Carabinieri but no luck.  With half a smile he then told us we had about 1 km to walk..... he was perhaps saying that to make us feel better - it was much longer.

We took off up the tree lined street and I commented to Tony that it felt like we were walking in Rostrevor! After a fair walk we came across a magnificent view of the city. 

photo thanks to a lovely American couple

our first peak at Florence - the peak of the Duomo over towards the left 

say ahhhh

Wow Florence is a beauty too!  The Duomo Florence, or Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore proudly sits in the centre of the city and she is magnificent.  We could also see the Ponte Vecchio bridge clearly from here.  

We walked past a few of the Carovana cars, including a very hot looking bright orange Lamborghihi!  The giro tour village was just past that, thoughtfully overseen by a giant bronzed David Statue.

some of the carovana cars

Nate and the Lambo

We had a quick look around and then went for coffee and gelati.  We sat outside the cafe only briefly as I hadnt paid the double price they ask to be able to sit - you pay an additional 50c for takeaway and over double for the sitting down privilege.

the tour village

vintage Bianchi - he even had knitted gloves

some vintage bikers and their vintage riders

one of the Carabinieri - half military and half civilian police

The team sign on was supposed to be at 11 so we took a perch on the base of the giant statue as it gave us a great view of the stage.  There was a fair bit of ceremony before the riders came to sign on, most of which we couldn't understand.  The music was good though so I had a bit of a disco going on while we waited.  Nate also scored 19 packets of Extra chewing gum as they were a major sponsor it seems.

David watching over the village

David

new hair for Nate

3 musketeers

the Giro winners trophy

presentation of the girls in coloured dresses the same as the various jersey's

Beardy McBeard - our favourite cycling reporter

The riders started turning up at about 1130 one at a time to start then a couple at a time.  It was a bit disappointing that more didn't follow Lotto and do the whole team at once.  The crowd loves their Italian riders and they all got and extra loud cheer.  We tried to cheer loudly for the Orica team riders but it was lost in the masses.

Orica's Svein Tuft - one of the oldest riders

Team Lotto NL Jumbo - very organised

Andre Greipel - The Gorilla

Surprise visit by Mark Cavendish - hes not riding as he has Epstein Barr at the moment

Maglia Ciclamino - points leader - Fernando Gaviria (he wont todays stage incidentally)

Maglia Rosa - Tom Doumalin 

2016 Giro winner and overall favourite Italian - Vincenzo Nibali

Orica boys - Adam Yates and Caleb Ewan

Caleb (hes tiny)

After it was all done it was time for us to leave so we took a few minutes more to take in the views and then took off down the ramp.  We wanted to get back quickly so that we could watch the rest of the race on the tv - gratefully we have sky cable which shows it live.  To get back we had to scale the side of the cliff down (not exactly scale but it was a very steep walk down.)

Bella Firenze

Ponte Vecchio

At the bottom we found a couple of gorgeous grottos to have a bit of a look at and we also chatted briefly to another couple of Aussies, from Sydney.

inside the ponte vecchio

I had read that you usually cant flag down a taxi so we started to walk towards the first bus stop we saw.  Tony spotted a taxi coming off of a side road and we waved furiously at him. Woohoo he pulled over and we had a ride back to our hotel - he went to the wrong hotel first but no matter we got another look at the city on the way back and he got more euros.

Lunch was from the local bakery and of course was good.  No sandwiches here - today was foccacia.  It might be hard to get back to having our bread as its not as exciting as the varieties you get here.  Lunch and giro watching was slightly interrupted by short naps for the adults and then it was time for dinner at the fabulous restaurant from yesterday.  Tonight Tony and I shared a pizza and a crab pasta, Nate had his regular - they were all as good as the first night!