Sept 26 Montebelli

Montebelli Sept 26
I had chills again last night, skipped dinner, and decided to take the day off. It's the longest and steepest day, thirty nine miles, eight of which would be climbing up to Suvereto, an ancient town above the river Cornia. John, Suzy, and I rode in the van with Christian.

By the time we wound up the long incline to the snack spot, the intermittent showers had become downpours. Between them, Suzy and I took pictures and read names on the headstones, sarcophagi, and ash-drawers in a flower-filled cemetery that was terraced down the hillside. Catholic Suzy, whose father had designed churches, alternated between squealing from delight and crying due to the emotional setting.  A rod iron gate led us into a crypt belonging to the family Bertelli.  

Returning to the van, Suzy grabbed towels to dry the bikers' faces as they limped in. All except Mike, who--alone and first and squinting into the rain, sailed past without noticing our van.

 All were proud of their accomplishment and knowing they were at the top of the mountain, wanted to keep going before their hands stopped working. They squeezed out their socks, ate pineapple, bananas, and nutella,  compared wettest ride stories, and took off  on a long coast down the hill into a rainbow, the sun  starting to shine.

 Some muddy Italian mountain bikers passed us as the rain diminished near the end of our picnic and sneered at the VBT van and the bike trailer with a bunch of bananas hanging from it. I read their looks of disgust as, "pussies!"
The sun was drying the road as four of us rode the van to agritourismo Montebelli. There they dropped off the luggage and me and returned to the designated lunch spot.










Four German shepherd slept, ears twitching on the lawn of our hotel. The room had creamy stucco walls, oak trim, and hand-hewn oak beams. I spent the afternoon walking the grounds of the farm and climbing the road to the town on the hill.

After a glass of wine with four of the Michigan group our host served us bread with his organic olive oil and organic wine and told us about his parents leaving South Africa and falling in love with this farm and buying it 50 years ago.

They have planted thousands of olive trees and it took five years of using expensive organic fertilizers until they received the organic endorsement. They make little profit selling oil and wine but the Italian government subsidy of agritourismos  facilitates his profits from the hotel and spa. The toiletries in the room are all olive oil based. A dozen horses have free range through the hedge-enclosed 230 acres of olive trees.
Montebelli is truly a stunning and restful retreat. Check out it's English website.
http://www.montebelli.com/place.html