DI 05 Siena to Montalcino

Friday’s blog was delayed – you’ll soon learn why.

Remembrances of Siena – first a composite of 17 photos from Siena’s Il Campo.

Once again I give directions; this time I think it’s to an Italian.  As we approach Siena, still outside the wall, a lady has stopped her car, gotten out and, as we pass, pointing the direction we’re going, and hollers “Centro?”. I nod and holler back “Si”. At least we think we’re going in that direction.

In Siena, I choose for lunch, probably the only restaurant in Italy that doesn’t serve wine. The waiter offered beer. I accept and then learn it’s non – alcoholic. I didn’t know there were Baptists in Italy!

But our dinner made up for it; we chose the restaurant based on Rick Steve’s recommendations.  It was excellent. -- There is a Rick Steve’s tour group in our hotel. I imagine chaos when 30 of them and 20 of us arrive simultaneously at 7:30 for breakfast tomorrow.

Friday we leave Siena and soon the landscape changes with us. We now have rolling wheat fields, already harvested and plowed under. The smell changes with the sights. I don’t think this will last long; we’re headed to Italy’s most famous wine region, Brunello.

We have very light rain for part of the morning’s ride. After a visit to the Eustachian museum in Murlo we stop for a long lunch in Buonconvento. 

It starts raining for real as we leave the restaurant.  About 1 kilometer down the road I see a railroad track crossing the road at  a 45 degree angle. For almost 40 years, I’ve been maneuvering to cross track like this at a right angle. Well I didn’t get a good enough angle or was going too fast, probably both, but all of a sudden we’re lying in the road.

There are two types of falls from a bicycle. In one, you feel the wheel start to slide and try to correct it. Sometimes you can. In the other, you don’t feel the fall. One second you’re riding and the next second you’re down. We experienced this type of fall, our first in 12 years of tandeming.

Brenda was in shock (probably lasted 10 or 15 minutes); I had difficulty getting her to her feet and off the road. Help was immediate since we left the restaurant a minute ahead of our lunch group. And others, including our guide Luca were still at the restaurant. Passing motorists also offered help and one lady took Jim Yuhn back to get Luca, who administered first aid in the van (photo at left). We determined it was worth a visit to the hospital to get her checked over. Brenda got three stitches in her forehead and had brain x-rays. We waited and waited for the x-ray results but finally just left. Luca, Bruce and Carol had waited patiently for at least four hours at the hospital. We got to the hotel about 10:15. Bummer of a day but could have been tragic if she wasn’t wearing a helmet.

See pre-crash ride date here

MEET THE RIDERS

Bruce Hudson and Carol Croy got their first tandem in 1998, then an S&S coupled tandem in 2006 for the DATE’S England tour.  They immediately became active DATES members and have been newsletter editor and rides coordinators. Like Brenda and I, they both retired from Mobil Oil. Bruce and Carol have been on our other two tandem tours, England and Nova Scotia. They have REALLY been looking forward to the Italy tour and Carol said it has been  everything she hoped for. We thank them for their patience in the Siena Hospital yesterday.