Along Côte d'Azur and into Italy, 4200km

Hi people, the past weeks have been quite stuffed and I haven't had much time to access the internet, but I haven't forgotten my blog :)
After having spent a wonderful time in the Provence region, I headed along Côte d'Azur and along the Italian coast towards Tuscany, a trip of more than 1,100 km:

Day 31: St. Rémy de Provence - Pertuis, 98km. This day took me through the Luberón Mountains (and valleys) and to some of the old villages (Gordes, Menerbes, ...) of the higher, inland parts of the Provence. Very beautiful landscape: remote, medieval, and heavily fortified villages (pirate attacks in former times!) in the mountains, surrounded by vineyards and purple lavender fields. The Lubéron turned out to be quite hilly, and I could still feel Mount Ventoux in my legs, so I could only make 98 km that day, even though I had planned to cycle some 30 km further towards the Verdon Gorges (knowing that climbing the Gorges would be exceptionally hard the next day - see below).
Day 32: Pertuis - Callas, 168km. I went through the Verdon Gorges, a route that went up to 1,200 metres above sea level - I had never been higher with luggage. Extremely hard to climb the gorges, but dozens of people that were admiring me asked for pictures with me, the bike, and the luggage lol :)
Day 33: Callas - Cannes/Côte d'Azur, 78km: This day, I only had to cover 78km (and most of the time downhill, too) because I intended to stay in Cannes for a couple of days to take day trips from there along the coast (see following days).
Day 34: Cannes - St. Tropez - Cannes, 191km. I went south through the villages/ towns of St. Raphael and Frejus to famous St. Tropez in order to see lots of expensive boats and yachts, plus some of the bluest sea I have ever encoutered :)
Day 35, Cannes, 0km: After lots of kms the previous days I decided to take a day off, which turned out to be a bad decision because ...
... Day 36, 0km, AGAIN :( : Day 36 turned out to be particularly rainy. I had no choice but to stay in my tent during the day. Luckily, viewing the Harry Potter movie in the evening saved the day (Hey, in Cannes! - That's the place to go to the cinema, isn't it?!!)
Day 37, Cannes - Diano Marina, 148km: This day took me eastwards along the Côte d'Azur into ITALY. On the way, I took a look at Nice, Monaco/ Monte-Carlo (got lost in the road network underground - very nasty!! Easy to lose yourself in there), and Menton.
Day 38, Diano Marina - Rapallo, 153km: Nothing stunning happened that day. My aim was to shorten the way to Tuscany fast. French Côte d'Azur is much more beautiful than the Italian coast between San Remo and Rapallo, too ...
Day 39, Rapallo - Massa, 119km. I had wanted to penetrate as far as Pisa that day, but unfortnately my maps did not indicate that I had to climb a mountain pass of 700 meters height. So I only made it to Massa, a sea resort with lots of tourists and little children - not too nice of an atmosphere on the camping site.
Day 40, Massa - Barberino Val d'Elsa/ Tuscany, 149km. I went south to Pisa and spent some hours in town to visit the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa (and the Cathedral right next to it, which is just as beautiful, by the way). Unfortunately (but not unexpectedly), the city was literally packed with tourists. Looking back, this was a good preparation of what was waiting for me in Florence, Siena, and other parts of Tuscany ;-) Afterwards, I continued cycling towards Barberino Val d'Elsa, which is located in the mountains of Tuscany south of Florence (good place to start day trips to the various parts in Tuscany). On the way, I passed the small town of Certaldo, home town of Boccaccio (author of Decamerone).

The plan was to stay in Barberino for a couple of days to check out the major sights of Tuscany: Florence, Siena, San Gimignano. As shown below, this worked out fine :-)