A bright, clear, 75 degree morning as we pedaled away from the Port of Cecina under the cover of huge pines.We kept the mountains on our leftand sea to our right.  With the exception of overpasses and roundabouts, we had a flat, straight road the entire day with a slight tail wind.That was until our street was blocked by a town flea market, so we just biked through the middle of it.  For weeks, we’ve seen fruit and vegetable stands along the road; makes you wish you had a car to take it all with you.  We passed vineyards, olive orchardsand old villages.It was a beautiful ride through sunflower fields and flower lined roads.One right turn towards the sea and we rode the flower lined boardwalk of town.As we were unloading our bikes, this nice young couple struck up a conversation with us, in Italian! They didn’t understand us and we did not understand them, but we happily chatted for about 15 minutes, nonetheless.

Before dinner, we strolled the beach and were once again surprised at the number of people still there (and not at happy hour) at 7:30. Found one of the very few restaurants on the boardwalk and while we enjoyed Antipasti di mare and Antipasti di carne

we had front row seats to the sea and girls in boots…..everywhere in Europe.We have these mountains to climb tomorrow, so time to turn in.