Cycling in Italy

The weather these past few days has been extremely hot, as you know, and according to the weather forecast, today was not going to be any cooler. We got up early this morning in order to start our bike ride as we wanted to start off during the cooler part of the day. When we did get out of the house, however, we were greeted with four bikes in very rough shape. It took about twenty minutes to get the seats to the right height and the tires pumped up, and even then, we left with both of my dad’s tires in pretty flat condition. We found our path easily, thanks to the questions we’d asked and research we’d done the night before. Our plan was to ride next to the river and into a near town for some drinks and refreshments before returning home. We took a few wrong turns but in the end we got to the town in one piece, but we were all very, very hot. We locked up our bikes and stopped in at a little cafe we found. My mom and I ordered soft drinks, while Hannah and my dad went for coffee, Hannah’s cold and my dad’s hot. Hannah didn’t end up liking hers, so I was able to drink it and she ordered a San Pellegrino like my mom. But we didn’t stay long, and soon we were back on our bikes and down the trail again. The way back took half the time as we were able to stay to the right paths. The weather wasn’t nearly as hot as the day before and there was a cool breeze included, so we all enjoyed ourselves a lot. Going back down the roads into our town, we found one stretch closed off to a street market. We decided that we would go home and clean up a little before returning though, as we were all pretty sweaty.

At the market Hannah and I set off together to look at the clothes and my parents checked out the food stalls and a nearby grocery store. Most of the vendors who were selling clothes had trucks with changing stalls made of sheets set up for people who wanted to try on clothes. Hannah and I wandered around the stalls for a while, and in the end I picked up a formal and a casual dress, while Hannah opted for one that doubled as a skirt.

We met two hot and tired parents by a fountain nearby and we made one last trip into the grocery store to get some lunch and ice cream. After we ate and showered, both my mom and my dad settled down for some naps, while Hannah and I did some relaxing of our own (reading, researching and “internet-ing”). In the afternoon we played a game of Dutch Blitz (I won, Mom came last), and I made dinner while the other three battled it out in a highly intense game of cribbage (my dad slaughtered both of them...but my mom still came last). After hamburgers we all went off into our separate corners to do various tasks such as uploading pictures, writing blogs, and planning for the days to come.