June 18, 2023
Pisa to Livorno
I had my best sleep in the tent this trip last night. Perhaps my body needed to get used to it too. I only woke once and didn't even notice when James left the tent at 6. We were again the slowest to pack up and I was at times a tad envious of how fast a solo cyclist with only a few bags can pack up. Tobias enjoyed the company and the guys were very sweet playing with him while we got everything on board.
The first part of today's ride was unexpectedly very nice. After a few busy, messy, kilometres we joined a really nice separated path to the coast. It was really excellent. Well away from the roads so we were just riding through fields and trees, wide and smooth, and when we had to cross traffic we had the right of way. In fact we made it all the way to the coast by the time we needed to stop for coffee and lunch supplies.
The path continued a little longer on an old tramline, before joining up with the beachside road. Even after 6 years I'm still not really used to beaches in Europe. We didn't even see the beach, just all the signs to the different bars, and we couldn't find anywhere just to go down to the water. It was probably better anyway, we found a good park with some shade to eat in. Tobias again decided that playing with his toys in the sand was more interesting than eating. While we were packing up to go a very friendly man with a kid came over and introduced himself as a cyclist and asked if we had anywhere to stay tonight because he could host us in Livorno. We did actually already have an Airbnb booked so we declined, but it was very friendly!
The run into the city was a bit ugly for a start - through the port with a headwind and lots of glass on the road. Once we entered the town of Livorno though it was much nicer. We arrived at our house while Tobias was still sleeping. It has a lift, which is good, but it is pretty small so my idea of having the bikes packed and ready to go tonight was not going to work.
We've spent the last 8 nights camping, our longest stretch yet, so it was really nice to have lots of indoor space to move about. We also have a washing machine so have done 2 loads of laundry and have one more to go. I'm very excited for sleeping in a bed. Tobias sustained yet another injury while we were getting showered and ready to go out. This time he stuck his finger deep into our little USB pump that we use for the air mattresses while it was going and got a good whack on his finger. It's right on the tip so every time he touches anything it's probably quite painful. He's also definitely getting at least one set of his molars now, so he's a bit touchy.
We did have a nice walk around the town, despite the heat. The old fort was very cool and looks like it has some events and bars in there. Unfortunately being Sunday at about 3pm nothing was open. James did a quick reconacence mission to try and work out where we go to get our ferry to Bastia tomorrow while I looked at boats with Tobias. Everything is basically packed and ready to go. I wish we were staying an extra night here so we could have a sleep in, but the ferry leaves at 8:30 and we aren't sure if we are foot traffic (should be there 30min before departure) or a car (be there 1hr beforehand). We'll go for earlier because we both hate running late, but that means having to set our alarms. We have a short ride from the port to a campground on Corsica where we will base ourselves for a few day rides before taking the ferry again to Marseille.
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Today's ride: 31 km (19 miles)
Total: 1,635 km (1,015 miles)
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