Summer Heat, Italy
April 2007
Buon giorno from Italia,
Today we were on the move again, after 2 nights in a 2,500 year old etruscan castle in Civita di Bagnoregio (beautiful!). We had a sight see around a magnificent lake south of our castle, Lake Bolsena (60km round trip on our bikes). It was great to ride unladden. Matt is carrying the majority of our gear (thanks Pa for the modifications, we can now pack a ridiculous 30kg into the panniers and gearsack) while I am getting used to cycling with a 10kg pack (Matt is making me carry all the tourist books I bought with us! :o). Lake Bolsena and surrounds is gorgeous, undulating and the roads incredibly winding, which makes it perfect for the 100's of Ducati, Augusta, Motto Guzzi, Yamaha, Honda & Kawasaki super bikes we saw screaming around us whilst riding. I took a few phat snaps of the new Ducati 1098 while Matt mopped the cobblestones with his tongue and was last seen mumbling something about getting his leathers out of moth balls.
An early start this morning saw us leaving Civita at 7am in time for the first ringing of the church bells. After an initial steep climb out of Civita, it was mostly a downhill and incredibly cold cruise to Orvieto and a waiting train. Despite my insisting to stop and apply more layers, Matt kept promising me our destination was "just around the next bend". We jumped a train and 20 mins later, finally wrapped in my fleece, we arrived in Chiusi, sipped on a cappuccino and then rode the rest of the way to Lake Trasimeno (45km in total on the bikes today, fully ladden), arriving in 30 degree heat.
Tomorow we tour the region on our bikes (minus all the gear!), and then we hope to skyve off on Wednesday morning and head to Montelpuciano, Pienza & Montalcino...a slight change from our original plans.
Matts Italian sounds more like Chinese, and my confused look often sends the Italian men running for help. After days of eating pizza, pasta and bread...we found a supermarket today and bought some much craved vegies and fruit.
Hope all is well. Ciao!
Much love Sah & Matt Bacon xo
