Trip to Tuscany, Italy part 3

Today we visited Cortona where its location was over 32 kilometers.
Cortona is one of the most ancient cities in Italy.

The whole walls and dozens of huge and small churches, ancient buildings, houses,
and very steep flagging were kept in this city.Additionally, many human style and features and
abundant historical backgrounds that are full of legendary colors to make this ancient city be filled with unique color.

The film called "Under the Tuscan Sun" was shot here and it became a blockbuster.
Thus, the tourists around the world came in great numbers to Tuscany to visit Cortona for satisfy their curiosity.

Thousand-year-old city was built the top of the hill where the height is about 600 meters.
Before getting into the city, we had to climb steep stairs and took outdoor electric escalators. This is one of special and fun things for traveling.

▲ Beautiful streetscapes in the mountain city.

There is a road to the paradise in Otaru, Hokkaido.
Four of us rode bikes up there at that time.
There are also many real roads to the paradise in Cortona.
I estimated the hills were about 30 degrees.
It was normal that I could not ride up so spared me my life.
I wanted to ride up! It turned me off. I promised you, it'll be a tough ride.

If you would like to go farther, you'll need to rest first.
Drink a cup of coffee and had some desserts.
We could store more energy by rest, diet, and drinks.

Two days ago, the weather forecast said it would be rainy on Saturday.
There was good news about the weather forecast last night. It was be sunny on Saturday morning today.
Thus, we were going to ride our bikes to Orvieto where its location was over 78 kilometers.
In this beautiful scenery.

We rode over hills, rode down to the valley, and rode through fields.
Sometimes we were happy but sometimes we felt tired.
I said nothing at all!
I was very grateful! I was so lucky to be able to ride my bike in Tuscany that is beautiful and picturesque.

We were so lucky to be able to enjoy coffee and meals to comfort our tired body at a Café next to the road.

Finally, we felt so tired because we had ridden over four hills and rode with heavy and
tired on our legs to the place where we would stay.

The famous cathedral in Orvieto, Italy. The carver is meticulous,
and it is dazzling, grand, splendid, and magnificent.

I hadn't eaten ice cream for a few days.

And I would like to eat it especially this afternoon.

In this cool morning, the sunlight sometimes shone from gaps of clouds.
I sat alone at a café of the piazza in front of the cathedral.
I listened to the bells of the cathedral (rang one time every fifteen minutes)
and looked at many people coming and going on the piazza.
And I also looked at religious brethren go into a cathedral.
My mood was peaceful and cozy.

How breeziest the holiday was.

It was totally different atmosphere to come here yesterday evening and on Sunday morning.
Italy is a country of Catholicism.
People's emotion and passion are absolute for cathedrals.

Children held candles and walked slowly to an altar by clergies' guidance and parents' company.
They walked to the country of God and accepted blessings from everyone.

That's right.
I was in an atmosphere of religious mood from Italian.
I listened to the fair-sounding wonderful sound and holy music in the cathedral.
At this moment, I felt emotional and touched in my deep heart.

We were in ancient enclosing walls.

We looked at the beautiful scenery in the valley and also descried the hills and roads across from us.
Our first challenge for riding would be there tomorrow.

These were sceneries for teatime this afternoon.
We descried the high and spectacular Orvieto.

We proceeded to Viterbo today.

Here was the hot spring hotel where we would stay tonight.
I recommended a restaurant in this hot spring hotel that had won Michelin One-star in 2016.
The set lunch cost thirty euros.

The meals and beverages were delicious and the services were great.

▲ Appetizer
Smoked Swordfish, Shrimp Lettuce with Aceto Balsamico.

▲ Cuttlefish cooked in red wine with crisp toasts

▲ Deep-fried Crisp Squid & Shrimp

Cate, beautiful scenery and belle. What else could we ask for more.

One of us came here with his wife but two of us came with their concubines (their bikes).
We stayed together all day long. If this isn't happiness, what is?

That was right.
All of us were lucky.
I felt grateful a lot!

Today's journey was from Viterbo to a small farm village near a lake in Bracciano.

▲ With an old owner in a small farm village

▲ Beautiful small farm village and surrounding scenery

▲ The Italian who learned Chinese martial arts and here was near a lake

▲ Sceneries next to a lake in the evening

The weather forecast was accurate.
It started to rain at seven in the evening.
Our today's destination was the Wangs B&B near Rome Airport.
We kept riding in the rain.
Thank God the temperature was only 17 degrees and we just felt a little cool.
But we couldn't stop to take pictures in the rain.
We could just lower our heads and focus on riding on the wet and slippery road on our way.

We ran into heavy rain on the first day.
But we just ran into drizzle on the last day.
We carried our bicycle tours through to the end.
Grateful! God's blessing!

We were lucky and the rain stopped.
Took a break and drank some coffee at an outdoor Café next to the road.

Finally, the familiar destination was in sight

It was time to end the journey.

The temperature rose slowly these days.
The temperature was 17 degrees when we left this morning.
It was not cold instead of cool when it rained.

Our tour to Italy was a Happy Ending.
See you in Taiwan!