Tour of Italy 4
With Florence in the bag then the next few days will be cycling focused as we head towards Rome. Culture will very much be taking a back seat. Im also keen to plan some shorter days to allow for more recovery time as Mrs Crusader is getting rather pooped.
Day 11
My first day of the new strategy was a 40 mile ride which I was confident we could knockout by early afternoon.
As usual this was overly optimistic as we had 8 climbs totalling 8 miles to conquer plus we hit a number of very tricky off-road sections.
In fact in turned out to be our slowest average speed so far and we eventually crawled into our hotel late afternoon.
Evening entertainment was trying to order food from an Italian menu with Italy’s answer to Manuel attempting to help. Google translate reconned I was having pasta at the tobacconist but there wasn’t one for miles around so had it in restaurant instead.
Day 12
As we set off Mrs Crusader was unusually quiet as it turned out she had forgotten to wake up. We therefore made an emergency early coffee stop and the extra shot of caffeine seemed to do the trick.
The profile said it was flat, which was spot on but unfortunately mainly on a track so progress was consistent but slow and our hands and wrists took a beating.
The scenery was very nice as we left Tuscany behind but quite samey after a while.
As we approached our destination it started to get dull with rain in the air. Fortunately, after the swelling eye incident, Mrs Crusader had stocked up with most of Florence’s supply of mosquito spray so doused herself down before we headed to our accommodation.
That night it was a 15 minute walk to Chiusi for the nearest restaurant in a very compact town square but there were still the requisite big church, fountain and bell tower.
Day 13
As we travelled towards Rome accommodation was getting harder to find as we were out in the smaller towns and villages on this part of the route. This meant it would be another 50 mile day (like the ones I said we wouldn’t be doing anymore) for todays ride.
Fortunately it was the first profile that had more down than up. Unfortunately it started with lots more gravel track.
An early coffee stop was once again required where I had more top hot chocolate and fantastico cake.
Sadly it was followed by a 3 mile climb meaning we hadn’t got far by lunchtime.
As it started to spit with rain we decided to look for shelter in a delightful bus shelter with views of the road and nearby A1 motorway.
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It never did rain properly so we regretted not stopping at one of the many scenic points we later passed
But after lunch things became very straight forward as we whizzed through pretty countryside and little Italian villages.
But as always there was a twist as once again the rain cloudsgathered and lightning flashed across the sky.
Hammers were jettisoned as we made a dash for home and avoided all but a bit of drizzle while all around you could see the heavy rain. Day 13 turned out to be a lucky one.
Once at the hotel I couldn’t believe our luck as the view from our room was of the local motorway toll booth which I spent many happy hours watching that evening.
Day 14
Looking at todays ride profile it looked like it would be our toughest ride yet but if successful we would have made it to the edge of Rome.
By now we had our routine pretty well sorted and could guarantee a 9.30 pedals down hoping to have broken the back of each ride by lunchtime.
However although pedals down was spot today it was straight on to the hardest hill of this ride which had both very steep bits and tricky stoney off road sections. We both had to walk our bikes at times and it took almost an hour to cover the opening 3 miles.
We were also short of water and picnic but fortunately a few miles later we passed a supermarket. It also had a cafe with a fine selection of pastries and biscuits plus another excellent hot chocolate so spirits were once again high.
In this part of the country they like to build their towns on top of high hills. We were on to this so if we spotted the route going up and over one of them then a detour was introduced although as a result we may have missed some more big churches, bell towers and fountains, ho hum.
After lunch things improved as although Mrs Crusader was very tired the hills became less steep and the road surface much better.
We finished the day at Sacrofano which was again a the the top of a big hill. Our accommodation was at the bottom of a very steep bit but there are no plans to go back up it ever again. Instead we will head to Rome. We obviously don’t have to plan a route but just head down any road to get there.
Day 15
Our accommodation had been the first apartment of the trip meaning we had to find our own breakfast. Fortunately there were a number of bars open that had a fine selection of cakes and pastries. Who doesn’t love a country that has cake for breakfast.
Now feeling all set for our trip through Rome there then followed an unfortunate incident. While discussing the best route to get back on track from our breakfast stop a car slowly reversed out of a parking space and straight into Mrs Crusader pushing her to the ground. She yelped with shock and surprise as the whole village came to the rescue and shouted Italian at the elderly driver. Fortunately neither her or the bike were damaged and the driver, who was the only one who could speak English, was distraught and terribly apologetic. With the locals still shouting and waving we decided to leave them to it and headed off.
Luckily the ride into Rome was very straight forward allowing Mrs Crusader time to get her karma back.
The rest of the day was a game of two halves. We kicked off the first half at the Rome circular outer ring road where we had several miles along pristine cycle track running by the river. A real treat.
This took us right into the centre where we could see the tip of St Peter’s. However we were going to give the Pope a miss on this occasion and see how many of Rome’s famous landmarks we could cram in over the half time interval as we pushed our bikes across the city.
First we went to see how much we could get ripped off by, by having lunch at a cafe in the packed Piazza Navona. And we weren’t disappointed on and scored highly on the ripped off ometer but at least sight one was ticked off.
This was quickly followed by the Parthenon.
Trevi fountain
Roman Forum
Colosseum
And other random buildings, arches and columns.
After that we kicked off the second half by heading out of Rome until we found a quite cafe at the start of via appia antica which is apparently the oldest Roman road in Rome and is cobbled. We had a lovely ice cream and cup of tea while a fellow Englishman told us how marvellous his ride round the outskirts of Roman on his hired ebike had been but was less than impressed about our 15 day epic from Venice no mater how often I tried fishing for adoration.
The next few miles were hell as the appia Antica and it’s old Roman cobbles went on for miles. We had one aborted attempt to bypass it but this only lead us on, and very quickly off, some dual carriageway so it was back onto the painful and slow rattle down the cobbles. Why or why couldn’t South Rome take a leaf out of North Romes books and tarmac over the cobbles into an excellent cycle track. They could always keep a small section just so you got the idea but is 6 miles of the things really necessary?
After that Eurovelo 7 showed its other side as it took us down a really busy road for the next few miles until we reached our hotel and the full time whistle.
Tomorrow we start our final section along the coast to Naples
Miles so far 669
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