Day I-have-completely-lost-count Firenze to Bologna

The usual 3 croissants, 5 rolls, yoghurt and muesli and several coffees for breakfast and we were off.
And boy did we have our work cut out! After the usual 10km of finding our route we unfortunatrly found it - first a short sharp steep hill then the first proper climb with approx 600 metres of vertical ascend - 10-16% gradients. A long (not long enough!) descend let us to climb no 2 - up to about 800 metres with the same gradients - and the b... Mountain was called Monte Piano(Ital for flat,easy, mild ....) nothing flat or easy about it. The only similarity with a piano is the old Laurel and Hardy film with them carrying a piano up a 100 metres staircase - I certainly felt as if there was one in my panniers!! We feasted on a great lunch (what we thought we ordered was pasta but we were served delicious lamb chops - so much for our detailed  knowledge of Ital. cuisine terminology!). During lunch the heavens opened - and it got cold so I did the descend in jacket arm and leg warmers gloves and overshoes (yes - and bib shorts - ah there's another story - halfway up the first climb I noticed that my Rapha stripe had moved from one leg to the other and also changed colour (yellow to white) - and my bum was getting sore. Yes - the shorts were inside out - a quick change behind a bush made life much less uncomfortable- apart from the greenery I later had to remove!!)
We zoomed on to Bologna riding on the hard verge of main roads and reached our destination- a lovely old flat ( but no piano!!)  in the town centre. 70+miles done 1350metres of ascend - that complimentary Lambrusco will taste lovely.
Tomorrow Paul will wave goodbye - we others won't as he is leaving at 0400 - but we will miss his company. The rest of us will head to Cesenatico where cycling may not be on the agenda for the first day or two. But then again....
It has been a great trip in wonderful company and stunning setting (land-and seascape, bar-maids, restaurants etc). And we have had very little beer -must do it again!!!