Seemed like we were on busy roads most of the day. Few true highlights.

• 48.1km, 414m climb

• 4h 39m moving, 9h 01m elapsed

• 44% off-road, Sunny, 29°C average, 42°C max

Highlights

• After yesterday’s heat, we set off early and cycled the walls of Lucca early in the morning. Wonderful time of day in summer with lots of people out slowly cycling or jogging.

• We took breakfast at a great cafe just on the way out of town: Charlie's Cafè. I’d really recommend stopping here.

• We stopped for a coffee at La Dogana Altopascio in Altopascio. 3 out of 5 stars.

• Just after Galleno we go to cycle on part of the “original roman road” and then we went up into the forest which was great off-roading.

• Ponte a Cappiano was an interesting small place, the bridge being fun to cycle across.

• Since we followed the walking path for much of the day, I got to carry 3 bikes up the stops into Fuecchio which seemed a much busier place than Altopascio, but we still couldn’t find great places to eat. We ended up at a place called Bar Giuliano at the bottom of the hill with plenty of bus station vibes in the area. Yet again a good pizza.

• Big recommendation would be the view from the top of Fuecchio on the terrace between the two churches.

• Finally got to San Miniato late afternoon and we had a fantastic room in Soggiorno "Dimora Del Grifo" di Monica Panchetti. Nice big room for 4 with ok views out to the west.

• San Miniato is relatively small but we had a good walk up to the top at Torre di Federico II for amazing 360 (or thereabouts) views.

• We ate at the Piccola Osteria del Tartufo with only truffle dishes on the menu! 3 out of 5 stars, food was good but overpriced. We’d recommend the ice cream at Camilla Gelateria.

Lowlights

• I’d looked forward to the Church at Badia just before Altopascio. Apparently there are excavations there using remains of pilgrims and DNA testing to explore which microbes were prevalent during the middle ages. But honestly it was all closed, probably due to Covid.

• Very close to the old roman road at Galleno an old man had kind of lost control of his dogs and they were aggressive. I imagine this might not be the last time we experience something like that in Italy.

• We seemed to spend a lot of time on busy roads today: I’d have hated walking this route; most likely a nightmare stage or two for those walking the Via Francigena. It was especially bad in San Miniato Basso and then climbing the hill into San Miniato where a few drivers were pretty impatient; but hey “welcome to Italy”.