Lucca to Pietrasanta, that part I remember well. I biked along a river and then got into a more mountainous area. I was standing on a crossing, where I was supposed to go right. According to the Eurovelo route. But I was not trusting it after my experiences in the last few days. Too many muddy roads that were hardly bikeable. So I made a pause, to think what route to take. An english road biker came by, we had a chat and he said that I should definitely not take the planned route. Nobody who's local would take it, because it's simply to unridable. He showed me an alternative way then which I took. It was not not steep, but a nice serpentine through a forest, nicely shaded and great surface. Glad that I made a pause.
Eventually I came to a point where I had an absolutely stunning view over Camaiore, including a water fountain. After that, downhill. And what a fun one. Lots of steep serpentines with absolutely pristine views. Camaiore itself, meh, or not too interesting, but that ride downhill. Continued to Pietrasanta which was actually a nice surprise. It dawned on me, that the hardest part was still ahead of me and I hadn't had a lot of food yet. And very likely I wouldn't get any food in the little village up the hill. So I treated myself to a glass of white wine and a Spaghetti Vongole and was sitting down a bit on the town square. Very busy, but in a good way. Once I felt well rested, I decided to tackle the way up hill.
And man, that was hard. One and a half hours, just up. To be honest, I did push the bike. That was so steep and everybody looked at me with great pity. I only realised later, that my Garmin did not track when I pushed the bike, because it put itself on pause. Meaning I'm not sure about the elevation and time it took. But it felt like ages. Luckily it was as well gorgeous. I pushed up through serpentines and got my first glimpses of the Mediterranean Sea. Beautiful light.
Pushing up, I somehow had imagined that the whole village would be waiting for me. Greeting me and cheering me on for my heroic ascend. Quite the opposite was true. I couldn't find the place and when I tried to get there, people were yelling me off because I was at a private road. Eventually I found it, and to my dismay I even had to climb some stairs. The owner greeted me friendly and offered me a freshly squeezed orange juice, which I gladly agreed to. I brought all my stuff up the stairs just to see a stunning view and smell a terrible smell. Cat pee. So bad. Lots of cats around and the place was so stuffed. Under other circumstances I might have left immediately, but now I couldn't. I won't get into all the details of the AirBnB, but it was certainly very special. Sometimes I'm really surprised about the great comments people get. But the owner was friendly, but for the live of me I could not accept more food and was happy when I left the next morning. But the view, the view was great!
