Flights over weren’t too bad and passing security in Munich wasn’t a problem. Both at my initial checkin at home and the guy at Munich airport were initially a little perplexed by my having two covid vaccine certificates – one from home last May and the other from France/EU in September. In the end, perhaps because I had a swab test prior to leaving home it was all ok.
The only slight hitch was after I’d arrived in Rome as I waited an hour and a half for Colin to pick me up – I was starting to wonder if all was ok when I checked my ipad and saw I’d missed a facetime call from him.
Apparently I’d arrived at a different terminal than any of my previous trips – I was waiting outside terminal 1 while Colin was parked outside terminal 3. The difference, I believe, is because my final flight from Munich was on Air Dolomitie, rather than Lufthansa, thus a different terminal. In any case we finally connected and I was transported to Papiano.
The next morning we drove up to Pila, where our hair cutter now is – we found his new place no problem and both got cuts. His space is brand new and looks very nice – we hope he does well. Pila is larger than I expected, and looks like a lovely and prosperous town.
We met Janet and John in the bar later in the afternoon for a quick drink – so nice to see them again and get caught up. The scaffolding has come down on both the bell tower and the apartment building below us. For some reason the bell in the tower isn’t ringing yet, and the scaffolding has now been moved to the house right next to us. We’re kind of happy we’re not going to be around while the rest of the construction is happening.
We got going early enough on Friday morning to stop for a quick cappuccino at the bar before hitting the road towards Siena. We stopped at the same spot we’d watched the Strade Bianche from in 2020 – although that year it was held in August rather than early March because of the covid.
This time rather than sweltering in the heat we were near freezing. We lost the water in the early morning because of the cold so had to do dishes, etc. with our bottled water.
No matter – we were in a beautiful place and awaiting our first race of the year – nothing to complain about.
Race day was mostly sunny, but very windy and cold. I put on a double layer of pants, merino wool sweater, Icelandic wool hat, gloves – the whole shebang.
We had a delicious chicken stir-fry with mushrooms and green beans for lunch while we waited for the race to arrive.
Several fans congregated at the side of our campervan as it cut the wind for them – I did the same until we saw the helis in the near distance and I finally relocated just a bit down the hill.
We had heard on the live feed that there had been some crashes but Alaphilippe and Pogacar were both at the front of the first bunch to pass.
We watched the end of the race on Colin’s phone – Pogacar won in very convincing fashion – he’s so amazing!
Shortly after the race had passed we returned to Asciano and the nice aire they have. We partially filled up with water and had a very early night. Once again it got very cold and we lost all of the water in the early morning.
Sally McKenzie's European Adventures 