Lungomare to Campo Jemelli

I love bike racing to death, but sometimes the off-season is so damn good. It feels awesome to just jump on the bike and go for a ride without thinking about watts or time spent pushing the pedals.

Today I woke up at the asscrack of dawn to meet with a group of locals down by the water, but nobody showed. Sweet. In any case my solo ride was pretty fun, heading down the Lungomare, as usual, and then cutting inland to do a loop through Campo Jemelli, along the Autostrada to Torvaianica, and back home on the Lungomare again. It was a nice ride, made even nicer by the fact that drivers here actually respect cyclists. You may not believe this, but I didn't hear a single car horn during my entire time on the road today, and part of my ride even took me on the Autostrada (the equivalent of the MassPike for Romans)!

Unfortunately, I live on the flat side of Rome, about a two hour ride from the mountains, but when I find the motivation to trek out and do some climbing I'll put up a post and make you all feel jealous. For now I've pasted a Map My Ride...uh...map of my ride...in case anybody is interested.

Italy Update

Laura and I have been in Italy for a month now. The following things have happened:

-The airline lost my bike.
-The airline found my bike.
-The airline delivered my bike.
-My bike broke.
-I fixed my bike.
-My friend's car was broken into in Florence and my clothes and camera were stolen.
-We almost burned down the apartment while making hot grappa.
-I walked into the leg of a bed and dislocated my toe.
-I wrote my first blog entry since starting this trip.

Obviously these events were separated by considerable amounts of awesome traveling, pasta eating, wine drinking, and bike riding, and when my new camera arrives (thanks Adorama...) I'll get some pics up.

Keep on rockin' in the free world.