A driver met us for the 150-kilometer journey from Rome to Saturnia, the tiny town in the heart of Maremma (the southern region of Tuscany) where we’d be staying. As we drove higher into the hills and neared the turnoff to the town of Manciano, the driver suddenly slowed to a stop. Ahead, a flock of sheep was being driven down the road by a grizzled shepherd and a few panting, happy dogs. As we waited for the sheep to pass, I grinned in delighted wonder at this new world we were entering. The land rolled gently on both sides of the road, the hedgerows giving way at times to lush, green fields full of wheat or grazing sheep, alternating with shady woodland. Everything was bursting with springtime buds and blooms. Birds called sweetly from the trees; I heard the distant buzz of farm machinery. A haze of sunshine dusted the whole landscape with gold in that clichéd (but really, truly gorgeous) Tuscan way.
No sooner had we been welcomed at our charming bed and breakfast than we received a message from our host, Marco. We were instructed to build our bicycles and get ready to leave on a ride by 1 p.m. We just had time to prepare the bikes, grab a bite to eat, and change into cycling gear before Marco arrived on his bike. Marco is Italian and in his forties—he is a serious Iron Man tri-athlete with business that takes him all over the world. We’re not even sure what he does, except that his nickname among all the Europeans we meet (and everyone seems to know him!) is “Nasdaq.” At any rate, Marco is a true A-type personality; he is incredibly energetic, devoted to hard work and hard play, and amazingly generous in a gruff and no-nonsense way. He is also a taskmaster, as we found out on that first ride. We thought—having recently disembarked from a ten-hour overnight flight (followed by an hour and a half in the car), during which we’d eaten only airline food much lower in calories than we ravenous cyclists are used to—that Marco would take us on a short hour spin just to “loosen the legs.”
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