wow, that's awesome. this is the kind of vacation i like. sitting at a resort is cool and all, but I get bored after a couple days. cycling tours sound right up my alley. did you plan this all on your own? was there a resource you used to figure out the logistics?

That sounds great!! I liked your blog entry. It brought back memories of earlier this year when I was in Rome for my honeymoon and the marathon. The Piazza Navona was on the Rome Marathon route and I got to see it for the first time running by it. I got to see it a couple times when I was there. If I go back I would love to do a cycling tour.

welcome back, and I'm glad it all went so well :)

Got any ideas for the couple race for next year yet?

Beadsy DARLING she clearly wrote they are looking for a tri with an oly for husband and half IM for her :P I was wondering if they had a couple they were considering.

Yup! Still hate you. ;)
Looks awesome...what lucky kids you have.

*I* knew what you meant ;-)

I'm thinking Black Diamond would be a good one. I love fall races the most, and Pacific Crest and many others have the possibility of being way too hot for me (hubby runs well in the heat, I do not). Plus my sis lives in Washington so we'd have a place to stay, and I've done the course before and like it (though I hear they changed the HIM bike course this year and I'll have to see what people thought of the new course). It would mean I couldn't do my fave fall race (Black Hills Oly) but I could live with that. It would give us a fun summer to train together too!

Sounds like a great trip!

i'd go with you, but I don't think my husband would approve

Oooooh, you will have SO MUCH FUN!

We planned our route using maps, a LOT Of Google Earth (12 year old son's idea, this was absolutely brilliant and let us "see" our routes ahead of time with elevations) and one book, I'll have to look around and see if I can figure out where we put it, I don't remember the name. The routes in the book were good, except that they often said things like "turn left at the white fence in front of the yellow house", except that the fence is now red and the house is brown, LOL. We got lost A LOT. There are virtually no road signs. Learn some Italian if you can, crash course yourself with a CD set from the library or something - my Italian was invaluable, limited though it was, LOL. Become Italian and gesture a lot.

I'd just figure out how far you want to go each day, how much elevation you're willing to put up with (of course, elevation gains comes with Tuscany as it is very hilly and all the towns are at the tops of hills), and look at various routes. Stay on the back roads if you can and off of the main highways. Italians drive very fast but are extremely courteous to cyclists. Shout "Ciao" and "Bon Giorno" a lot and wave, we were so excited by how nice everyone was, of course some of that was that no-one there had seen crazy people riding with their kids towing all of their luggage behind them before.

Let me know what towns you're thinking of hitting and I'll see if I can help with any of the routes we used.