It almost seems like every major city in Italy is dedicated to tourism, and that you wouldn’t run into people that actually live there. Massa was no exception, with half the hotels closed for the winter and the rest hors de prix. It was just 40km to Pisa with the road as flat as a tack, with hardly a whisper of wind, and a double kebabie pitstop, perfect. Yes, that’s right, two kebabs each, in less than 15 minutes.

We stumbled upon the piazza del duomo more quickly than we expected to when we pedalled into Pisa. A legion of souvenir vendors detracted somewhat from all four of the beautiful buildings in the square - “Those guys? Yeah, I think they’re allowed to sell that stuff here”. Simon, trying to prop up the tower with his massive quads was an instant hit with the Japanese tourists. We also ran into a surprising number of bicycle tourists. Okay 2 others independent of each other, but we found that’s still a lot in one place at one time in the middle of winter! We enjoyed the warm sun while it lasted, and followed the river east out on the way to Florence.

As the sun set, we tried knocking on a church door hoping to pitch a tent in the back yard but got a shrugging, head shaking move along. We found a spot near the river and set up the tent on a pile of cut cane. It was Lachlan’s idea of DIY insulation from the cold, wet ground. A bastard bloody dog threatened to expose our hiding spot, barking up on the rise for 2 hours, but we got away with the campsite and after cooking the first pack of pasta in the tent we ate the second packet raw, it was just as tasty.