Italy!

I love Italy! That is about the sum of this blog post. I got to Lucca on Monday after a pretty uneventful flight. I had no faith that my bike was going to make it in working condition. Trying to avoid fees from the airlines for a bicycle, I got the case to a Ritchey Breakaway bike. I took the case and my bike to a slightly pessimistic mechanic who thought it would never fit. After a little work, it fit and I did not have to pay any extra…success!
I am staying in Lucca, Italy which is in the Tuscany region. I am not up on my history of the city, but Lucca is surrounded by a 3K long wall, apparently to keep out people from Pisa (…Pisans?). I haven’t been to the city much, but will hopefully see more when I get back from the Route de France. I have heard it is very easy to get lost inside the walls and most of your time is spent ON the wall, looking at the city, trying to figure out where you want to go.
SO, more about this trip. I will be staying at these luxurious accommodations until Friday, when we drive to France for the Route de France, a 6 day stage race in Central France. The other girls on the team are Kristin McGrath, Carmen McNeills, Aly Stacher, Alison Starnes and Evie Stevens. After the Route de France, back to Lucca to race for the Italian team, Systems Data. With the Italian team, I’ll race Trophee d’Or (also in France) and Toscana. I will then be raced out and fly back to the US on the 20th, to start school on the 21st.
We are staying just outside of the walled city in apartments owned by , and on the same property of the SRM Italia headquarters. There are 6 apartments, two in each, my roomie is Aly. I will put pictures up soon of the house. It’s so nice! There is even AC, which I was definitely not expecting.
We had delivery pizza last night which is not even on the same ranking scale as pizza in the US. It was so amazing, but is apparently not even the best pizza in Lucca…it gets better!
Blogging doesn’t seem to be my strength, but I will try to regularly post something.
Ciao!