IL LONG WAY DOWN: CAPTAINS LOG - Rome to "not sure where"

Keeping this one short.

Another long day. Another hard day.

Took detour to Vatican City as its worth seeing. Magnificent. Amazing.

Journeyed our way to campsite, bit by bit. Did about 80 miles.
The weather has been sooo consistent here. Well over 30 EVERY day and it makes it soooo much harder.

I can't remember the views, but we arrived at camp around 7.

We washed, then headed to restaurant for 3 course meal that cost around £50. Spot on!

The campsite we're at had armed guards. What?

They were everywhere. Most of the tenants at the campsite were permanent, and loads of kids.

When we got back from restaurant around 11:30pm, we heard music, so me and Robs dad headed over to check it out.

Butlins. That's the best way to describe our campsite.

Great atmosphere, brilliant set up. Looked like a mini Colosseum, but it wasn't for folk of our age group.

This place was Massive.

We had a drink and went to bed.

Most surreal place we have ever been. Couldn't park our car near tent, had to be parked about half a mile away. Thanks for that!
Everything seemed monitored. The food had to be £30 eat all you can buffet, and despite the cycling, we declined.

Had a good nights sleep and left on time.

Sorry for un-descriptive post!

Ciao!

IL LONG WAY DOWN: CAPTAINS LOG - Rest day in Rome

Waking up with a sore head is not that alien to us, but when at 9 the suns already generating temperatures of over 20c, it's not good. Dehydration has lived with me since I got here on the 16th June, and copious amounts of booze the night before, doesn't help matters.
We made it to the pool for a swim before buying our bus and train tickets from reception and heading off into one of the most historical, ancient cities on our planet.
€1.5 for 2hrs travel. Amazing. Enough to get us to the city centre which was around 3 miles from camp.
We walked from central Rome, west towards an address I had in my phone where I was to get my tattoo. I wanted to get a tattoo to mark the very trip that brought me there in the first place.
The number of ruins and ancient historical monuments fill Rome wherever you look. Very busy, very big.
We didn't go in any shops as such, just observed as we walked the historic streets towards the tattoo shop.
I brought my Garmin with me which can be altered to navigate you on foot. We found the place, but a sign in Italian, on the shop fronts window suggested they'd be back soon. In feed they were.

The idea behind the tattoo was the bike ride. I wanted ILWD, for Il long way down, and 2012 in Roman numerals to represent the year I did it.
After twenty minutes, the piece was done, but they didn't take card, so a short walk to the cashpoint ensued. As we got there, I began looking at my partially bandaged artwork and made a comment about the number of X's in it. I showed Rob, and he creased up. It said 2022, not 2012. Idiots.
We'd double checked the correct letters on Google both in the shop, and on my phone, but at some point in between then and when the job was done, it was too late.

I decided the best thing to do was to wait til I got back to the Uk to figure out and solution. We joked I could return in 10 years and do the ride again, by which point, there'd be no mistake. I could just leave it and laugh about it, or get it lazered.
Funnily enough, I didn't have to pay them, and we walked to the Colosseum.
Rome is just beautiful with so many things to see and do. I could write page upon page of anecdotes but I haven't got time.
The journey back to camp took forever, but a few beers later we were all ready for bed. A long 80 mile day was due, so sleep took priority that night.

Will definitely go back.

No tattoos though ;-)

IL LONG WAY DOWN: CAPTAINS LOG - Bolsena to Rome

Today was strange. I typed in the destination into my Garmin and it said 117 miles. Sod that! I looked at the route it wanted to take us on and it resembled a garden hose that had been thrown on the ground in a heaped mess.
It wasn't the shortest available route to Rome. So I opted for navigating to towns closer by to try and confuse the Garmin, and it worked. Total distance for the day was just over 70 miles.

We left the campsite late again as Robs bike had another puncture which must have occurred overnight and the cashpoint wasn't working so we had to wait for Robs dad to drive further afield to find one that accepted Robs card.

The ride was flat for around 3 miles, and then the climbing started. And it seemed harder than any other day. Fatigue? Tiredness? Who knows! It just hurt.
To our surprise, about 10 miles into our ride, we saw two cyclists ahead who'd stopped just beside the road before another climb. When we approached we noticed it was the two Austrian ladies from two days previous. I know we had a day off, but we'd covered 100 miles since our last encounter. These ladies are awesome. In their fifties and in front of us two! We stopped and had a quick chat, and carried on.

We decided to continue the new 20 mile batch cycling, but nothing seemed to go in our favour. We couldn't find many places open and when we did there was no shade to hide in. We were sweaty, dusty, dirty and constantly thirsty despite the gallons of fluid we'd shove down our necks.
I think we climbed the most this stage. We hit 3,000 feet in altitude about half way into the day and once we'd descended, the climbing started again.

About 20 miles from the end, we realised why the Garmin had been trying to send us in a zig zag to Rome. Fast motorways. They may not have been actual motorways, but the speed limit was 90 and no cycling lane. Not fun. We were on it for the best part of 10 or 15 miles. Didn't feel comfortable at all. But, it knocked 50 miles off our day, so potentially worth the risk. Or not? Who cares, we're here and not in a wooden box.
The stops increased and the fatigue went up too. Neither one of us were enjoying any of the cycling. It was hard work. A struggle. Imagine having to walk 15 miles uphill to get something important, only to realise you walked 15 miles in the wrong direction. Then having to turn around and walk back 15 miles, plus the 15 miles you should have walked. All the while the sun's breathing down your neck and your hands and feet hurt. And you're thirsty. And you're tired. But you HAVE to keep going. You have no choice. You can feel yourself losing patience. It's actually tortuous sometimes, but you got to keep mentally tough and bite the bullet and carry on. Failure is not an option.

We eventually rocked up at the campsite about 7:30pm and immediately had a beer. We washed, ate and headed to the bar where they were playing the football.
The campsite is definitely a travellers campsite. Ozzies. Kiwis. Canadians. English. Scots. Welsh..... And Italians.

The atmosphere was buzzing during the game. More supporters of England than Italy, which was quite funny. But no animosity. The game was being shown outside on a big screen near the swimming pools and next to the bar.
We met a few people and stayed with them the rest of the night. The people we met just bought an open coach ticket which allows you to travel all over Europe, hopping on and off where you chose. It's amazing what is at your disposal if you have a sense for fun.
What we're doing now is exactly the same. Just "point and squirt". Aim for somewhere, and go. No time limits. No trains to catch. No one to answer to. Just exploring and exploring. It's amazing.

After the match, which England predictably lost due to penalties, we headed straight to the night club just the other side of the campsite. Pretty much everyone remained outside all night as it never gets cold here. Just hot 24/7.

Most of the night I remember, but how it ended I'll never be quite sure. All I know is I woke up in the back of Robs Dads car after they woke me up at about 3am having passed out in one of the chairs in my drunken stupor.
Great night. Fantastic night. And we needed it. Felt like a holiday for the dirt time since we hit Italy over a week ago.
So much to keep talking about but I haven't got the patience to keep writing. Hopefully the video footage from throughout the day will go someway to helping illustrate all the truly amazing things we're getting to see and find.

Until next time....

Ciao!

IL LONG WAY DOWN: CAPTAINS LOG - Siena to Bolsena

Yesterday we cycled from Siena to Bolsena, 87 miles, 6,000 feet of climbing, 6.5hrs in the saddle.

This is hard.

Tactics changed slightly for the day as there was so much ascending to start that we were going nowhere fast. Our previous tactics was to stop ever hour to refill water bottles etc, but we hadn't gone far enough in first hour so decided to opt to cycling in 20 mile blocks.
The first hour yesterday I felt was hard. Very hard. Up mountains most of the way, very hot and my legs ached severely all over. After 1hr 45 we found a random hotel/restaurant in the middle of nowhere. I felt spent. Awful. And we'd been on the bikes for less than 2 hours. Things were not looking good.
Then we ate. It was 2pm about this time. I had asparagus risotto, Rob had tortellini. We also consumed 4 litres of water in 40 minutes as well, incredible how much water we need.

After we'd paid, we left. And I don't know what happened but for the next 67 miles I felt fantastic. Never better.
I don't know what they put in that rice but it sure perked me up! I had eaten very well in the morning and was not under fuelled.
I honestly felt I was done for that day, but as it turns out, I wasn't.

The views today I felt were better than any other day. I can't put my finger on why but it was that little bit more special to look at.
We are so lucky to be seeing all these places that not many other people would themselves. Even the Italians.
Everybody goes to Rome, to Siena, to Modena, to Como. But how do they get there? Fly! We see every stunning road, view, mountain range, hills, trees, people, animals etc. You simply can't see the real Italy, and all of it, by going to one place, and staying there. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying don't fly to Rome, I'm just highlighting the advantages to cycling all way down it, you see more! So, who's coming with me next year?

We arrived in Bolsena about 8:30pm. The road before Bolsena looked as though a downhill was coming up and you I knew if I was lucky that as I approached the blind summit I'd be able to see the massive lake (about 10 wide). And I did. Wow. We saw it from around 3 miles away and several hundred feet up. The water looked so blue, even that late at night.

As soon as we found the campsite. We had a beer. Robs dad went off Into town to buy Calzones for us all, an we watched the rest of the France vs Spain football match.

The tent is literally just a few metres from the edge of the lake. And it's stunning. We would like to have had time to have a swim but we want to be in Rome as early as possible.

It's just amazing how after 400 miles are yet to find a part of Italy that's isn't out of this world beautiful.

Today should be shorter, but I've learnt not to count my chickens......

See you in Rome

Ciao!

IL LONG WAY DOWN: CAPTAINS LOG - Day off in Siena

I'm writing this on my iPhone so not that easy.
Right, we had a hard day the day before so we decided a day off was in order. Plus, we now get to spend Monday in Rome, and not Sunday, which means we'll have more money. Also watching England game in Rome, awesome.
To sum up the rest day, we did bugger all. Sort of. Rob and I drove to Siena and walked around the town. Amazing. Big place. Up and down the streets went, lots of gift shops, ice cream, wine, cafes, clothes shops etc. we also saw a part of Siena used in Quantum of Solace, which was cool. We ate ice cream and headed to the supermarket to buy mince so I could make burgers. Mmmmm!
The produce departments in Italy are far bigger than any other part of the shops in Italy. In the UK it's the ready meal isle. That's why everyone in Italy looks so healthy and slim. EVERYONE!

Take note Britain!

We had a swim or two during the day. We had to buy these stupid hats or we weren't allowed in the pool. Again, you can smoke at petrol stations, but you have to cover your head when you swim! Go figure!
At 7 we drove back to the spot we got rescued from the day before, as we'd promised. But, when we got there, it turned out Rob didn't bring his front wheel, so I had to cycle it on my own.
Rob fans, he's promised to cycle an extra 15 miles at the end to make amends.
Then, when we both got back to campsite, I found out my iPad had been stolen while we were out. We searched everywhere, but in the end I had to call Orange to get it blocked. Yet another insurance claim.

To sum up Siena. Very traditional, gorgeous. More terracotta roof tops covering the views across the mountains/hills. Amazing.

I'm definitely going to run out of money coming back to all these "must come back to places" over my life.

We ate our burgers, drank two bottles of wine, 2 pints of Peroni, and went to bed.

Asleep by half 12.

Zzzzzz!

IL LONG WAY DOWN: CAPTAINS LOG - Barberino di Mugello to Siena

Right, where to start! Had a good breakfast, had another swim. Set off about mid-day. Intentional late start as we had our legs to think of so had the extra sleep to aid recovery. And as soon as we clipped our shoes in on the bike, it all went down hill, and I'm not just talking about the roads.

I filmed the entire 8 mile descent on my GoPro camera, but when I got to the bottom and looked round, no Rob. So I waited, and still no sign of him. I rang him, and he had a puncture. I waited 15 minutes in the soaring heat and eventually he rolled down. About 40 minutes after that, another puncture. This time we'd noticed a slash in the tyre. Again. So we called up his Dad, gave him our coordinates, and waited. After about two hours we were rolling again. New tube, new tyre.

And from this point, everything went terribly wrong.

Morale was low, energy was low, heat was high and so was the traffic. We climbed up and down and up and down until we hit Florence. And that's when the traffic started. My god, London is so much less hectic. Today at least. Bearing in mind we were both fatigued, the traffic tipped us over the edge. It took almost 2 hours to get far enough out of Florence to find normality again.

I'm going to digress slightly here and say we found the most gorgeous spot over looking Florence from a few hundred feet up which was obviously a popular place with the tourists. You could see mile upon mile of terracotta roof tops and cathedrals, buildings, landmarks, all surrounded by greenery and mountains. Just behind framing the view we had, were the Apennines mountain range we'd spent several hours climbing over the day before. Wow.

Anyway, we soldiered on, and slowly. Fatigue and stress can seriously bring your bodies battery life down rather considerably, and it didn't recharge. The climbing didn't seem to stop, the heat didn't die down, and the clock didn't stop either, it was getting late. Traffic, punctures, split tyres. It was becoming too much.

We maintained our hourly ritual of stopping for a refill of water etc, but we weren't making much progress. The mileage counter was coming down as slowly as a slug on glass and our legs felt like lead. We kept saying "Why did we do this?" "Why are we doing this?".... It was all in jest, at least now it seems, but at the time, we wanted out. It's amazing how far you can make your body work for you when you have motivation, determination. At home, we would have given up LONG ago, but we had a check point to reach.

Slowly but surely, it began getting dark and we were fearful we wouldn't make it to Siena. In fact, we didn't. We had to call the rescue team (Robs dad) to come and get us. 13 miles away. We had only one hour, maybe more of cycling to do and we would have been home and dry, but it was half past £@#*^ nine at night and getting later and based only on the fact neither had our front or rear lights fitted, we succumbed. Had there been no traffic, and had we not encountered a two hour wait for a replacement tyre, we'd have easily made it.

If you're thinking, "Ah, just an hour away, you should have kept going", try descending down a mountain swerving round switch back after switch back in the dark, with no lights, and lorries and cars and motor bikes and scooters every 5 seconds, then you'll know what was going through our heads.

I'm sensing a little tension in my writing here as I feel a little bad for missing that last hour, but we're getting taken by car, back to the very point we were picked up, to finish the ride to Siena.
We've called for a day off tomorrow as its now 1am and an early start tomorrow just a few small hours away to begin cycling over more effing mountains is not my idea of fun. We need rest. We NEED rest.

I've been mentally challenged today (no jokes, puns or similar please) and have never been forced to do something so hard in all my life. It wasn't the weather. It wasn't the terrain. It wasn't the saddle sore. It wasn't the dehydration..... It was fatigue.
Today just wasn't meant to be.

The plus side was our next rest day was supposed to be Sunday in Rome. But it will now be Monday we spend in the capital city, and we will have been paid. Or at least Robs dad will be and we'll have our cash flow temporarily replenished, so we can make the most of being in one of the worlds most famous landmark cities.

Don't get me wrong, it wasnt 100% all bad today. Just 99%. The 1% came from the views, the experience and the feeling that we're doing something out of this world. I'll probably never cycle Italy again, neither will anyone I know now, or ever meet, so I'm not going to complain any further.

Tomorrow we go to the city of Siena, and I'm looking dead forward to having a well earns rest. As are all of us.

Check back soon

The ILWD team

Pictures:
Just for info, the two ladies photographed here are probably in their fifties, maybe more, yet have cycled all the way from Austria. I know zero German, but we shared a friendly word or two. Amazing people!

And the photo of my hand shows the tan mark I'm going to have to live with for a few months, caused by the one bit of skin the glove doesn't cover. Just shows how bloody hot it is here.

G'night!

Ciao

IL LONG WAY DOWN: CAPTAINS LOG - Modena to Baberino di Mugello

Sorry for the late post here, last night we were physically dead. Comatose.
Currently say by our gorgeous pool. It's insane how beautiful everything is.

So, yesterday. Best thing I have ever done. Robs says the same. It was immense. Very hard day. We cycled 50 miles in the baking sun to just south of Bologna, and then we turned right towards the Apennines. It wasn't until we'd done the 50 miles that the climbing started. 21 miles of it. NON STOP! The views were to die for. Cannot explain in a thousand words what we saw. We averaged around 8 mph while climbing so we climbed for just under 3 hours. Try that at home. So impressed with Rob. He's been training since January for this and it shows. I have some GoProHD footage to show you when I get home. The climbing went on and on and on. Switch back after switch back. It didn't seem to ever end. We climbed to a peak of around 3,500 feet and climbed a total of around 5,500. All of which occurred in 20 miles. The best thing about it was the coming down. We descended for 10 miles with no flat bits, just swooping left and right until we got right down, only to find out we'd over shot the campsite by 8 miles. So we had to phone Robs dad to rescue us. No way did we feel like climbing back up 8 miles. Sod that.
The campsite here is the best campsite I have ever seen. Green plants and bushes everywhere. Amazing pool. There's an Italian family running it and they are awesome, friendly and fantastic at cooking. Rob and his dad had pizza, I had carbonara and chips. In Italy, pasta is a starter. So bolognese, tagliatelle etc are all first course dishes. But the chips filled the hole.
So tempting to stay here but have to move in. Leaving later-ish today to let the legs rest.
Yeah, so amazing what we achieved. 80 miles, 6.5 hrs in the saddle and 5,500 feet of cycling upwards. So buzzing from it all. Can't wait to show you the video footage.
Thanks everyone for continuing to read this and showing your support.

Ciao, ciao!

IL LONG WAY DOWN: CAPTAINS LOG - Cremona to Modena

We planned to be up and off for 9am today, but left at half past. Not too bad. By 10am its already in the twenties and you can feel the sweat already starting to fill the material of your clothing. Super noodles, energy bars and a few gels for breakfast and off we went.
We knew today's terrain wouldn't be bad but thought it would be crammed with lots of miniature hills, as you'll see on today's stage terrain profile, but it wasn't to be. It was perfect. Almost flat all the way. Our rolling speed was around 20mph. The only thing slowing us down we're traffic lights and the odd roundabout.
Traffic was still thick and fast. Lorries dominate the roads here, but for the majority of the time there's plenty of room for the both of us.
Our breaks almost always now occur at a petrol station. But they're not your normal British stations, these are Italian petrol stations. A sign in the foyer says you cannot smoke in the toilets. Fair enough. But you can have a cigarette on the benches they have laid on just 10ft from the pumps?????? And, every station has a bar. A bar that serves beer, wine, spirits. The lot. Who drinks here? They're almost always out of town and why would you go to one of these stations just for a glass of wine? I must ask before I go.
Anyway, we used Parma as the half way town and stopped for a bite to eat and to restock on essential fluids.
The heat is unbearable when you aren't cycling. The wind when pedalling along took the sting out the sun, but you still get burnt none the less. Don't worry, we have plenty of factor 30.
After around 4 hours we got into the outskirts of Modena, and went straight for the campsite. We had a short 15 minute delay 20 minutes from the end as Rob got his first puncture, and the tyres shredded too, so a replacement will be fitted tomorrow morning.
We knew the campsite had a swimming pool, and despite being rather hungry after 70miles of cycling, we headed straight to it and cooled off. So far this trip, the pool has been our highlight so far. Not kidding you.
For dinner, I threw together a mixture of stew packs, puy lentils and brown rice. Not satisfied with the mountain of food on the plate, we headed to the nearest supermarket which was around 1.5 miles away, and we walked. Modena city centre was around 7km so we shelved that idea and went to the supermarket. Supermarkets are far bigger in Europe. The huge establishments have many other shops and stores and have car parks the size of football fields and you could easily spend a few hours just waltzing around looking through all the shop windows.
Anyways, we paid for our stuff and left. On the way there we saw an electronic temperature sign in one of the buildings which read 36 degrees. Savage. You don't stop sweating in Italy. But on the plus side, gave us an excuse to jump back in the pool when we returned.
I then proceeded to cook dinner No.2. (see pictures) I needed it, and tomorrow a full fuel tank is never more essential. We have to cycle 80 miles reaching around 3,000 ft in height, twice. Not looking forward to it if I am honest. I'm getting, or rather have already got, pretty bad saddle sore. I have chamois cream but it's only making a slight difference. A good sleep, a stern breakfast and hopefully we'll make it to the next stop in one piece. Tomorrow will be by far the hardest thing I have done, even harder than the 200 mile ride I did earlier this year to Brixham.
Well, you'll hear about it tomorrow. It won't be positive. It won't be fun. The views may help take our minds off things momentarily but it's still going to test my fitness.

See you tomorrow.... Hopefully!

Ciao!