Cycling Day 1 - Elba (Marina Di Campo) to Piombino

I woke up on cue in the morning not feeling too bad. To save walking on my knackered legs I took the bike into town and enjoyed a delightful panini at a beachfront cafe before attending the finishers presentation. It was another delightful morning and we all sat outside in the square for the presentation. If was pretty much all in Italian so I couldn't really understand what they were saying but got the general gist of what was going on. Post presentation I remember going to another beachfront cafe and consuming a massive hawaiian pizza followed by 3 scoops of ice cream - it had to happen. It was then back to the campsite to pack everything away before setting off on the bike on my quest up to Turin. I opted to take a different route back to Portoferraio from the way that I had come before. This took me east along the south of the island before heading north up to the port. It started off with a massive long hill - certainly a test for the legs. I was rewarded with a great view at the top and long smooth descent back down. I followed the road to Porto Azzuro - a nice enough place but not worth stopping in. So then it was north towards Rio Nell'elba before heading west to Portoferraio. As I got further north my route seemed to get hillier but also more spectacular. There were very few cars and the tarmac was consistently good - a cyclists' dream. At the top of the longest climb there was a great vantage point with views over the bay, and protected wild area. I ventured into the wild area away from the road a short distance to discover an even better vantage point offering truly spectacular panoramic sea views. I didn't hang around long as I'd left my bike unlocked by the road. The cycling seemed to have done my legs some good as I was able to manage a slow jog back to the bike. It was easy pedalling back to Portoferraio and the ferry. As darkness was starting to set in and I was very tired my plan was to try and find a hotel as soon as I got off the ferry. Unlike the previous ferry there wasn't any wifi on this one, so it was a very boring crossing. It didn't take long to find a hotel once back on the mainland in Piombino. It was €40 (a bit more than I was hoping to spend) but I was too tired to haggle or look elsewhere. After putting my bike in the hotel garage I went up to the room, had a shower and went to bed. The alarm was set for 8.