Monday August 15, 2005, 94 km (58 miles) – Total so far: 8,260 km (5,133 miles)

Tuscany is truly beautiful. Which is handy because we keep getting lost here. We took a few wrong turns today and we’re still over 80 km from Siena – we should have been there yesterday. It’s tough cycling here, we must have climbed 1500m today, but fortunately it’s been a bit cooler which made things a little easier.

Our campsite is in a funny old place, on the surface it looks very nice, but it’s also a convalescent home for the mentally ill, there are an awful lot of strange looking people about.

The campsite shop sells almost nothing but dried pasta – no sauces whatsoever, it must be a cunning trick to get you to eat in the on-site pizzeria.

There was a massive storm here this morning and there are still piles of hailstones on some of the tents.

Tuscan sheep farming

The grapes are now ripe; we ate a few. Delicious