Today looked easy until the last four or five kilometres. That’s when it went vertical due to the historical Italian penchant for building villages on hills. I don’t care about them defending themselves from constant raiders and marauders; I only care about the effort I have to put in. And the climb to Assisi was a cracker.
Downhill out of Spoleto was easy until I made two wrong turns and ended up climbing two different sides of the same hill, when I could have stayed on the flat. Once again, I was too busy gawking at the village to notice the turns I have to make.
After that, the day was pancake flat until Assisi. The route took me through a north South valley with hilltop and hillside villages dotted along the way. I didn’t succumb to the urge to ride up the hills and check out the villages. Being in the middle of Italy and expecting to be here for another month, I figured that I’d see plenty of villages without any added effort, so I took a photo from a distance and stayed on the flat.
The only village on the route was Bevagna where I stopped for some pizza slices and coffee. It’s a nice village and it looks popular with tourists. It was especially popular with me because it was flat and had all of the qualities of a mediaeval Italian village.
The pizza and machiato were first rate. It was here that I met another cyclist, Detleff from München. He’s heading to Sicily and is travelling very light indeed. It was nice to talk but he was heading south, and I north, so we wished each other the very best of luck and continued out respective days.
I haven’t been on a bike path like this for quite some time, so it was great to be able to ride without caring about traffic.
As I approached Assisi, the climb began and it was immediately steep,relentless and long. The campground was actually higher than the town, and when it was finally done, I was exhausted. Five kms earlier, I was feeling fine. I often complain about the effort involved in bikepacking, but there are few climbs that aren’t worth it. This one finished at a magnificent old farm that is now an interesting camping ground. On the way, I passed vineyards, olive groves and many pines that both obscured and then framed tremendous views of the valley below. Every painful pedal stroke seemed to reveal more about where I was going and the surrounding area.
The camp ground is amazing. It’s also a hotel which uses the large old stone buildings. There’s a restaurant, shop etc, and a rambling collection of campsites.
It was so hard to choose one. At the end of the season, most campsites are rocky, just dirt or rutted, but I found an ok place and setup.
While I was pitching my tent, a small van raced through the campground way too fast. There was dust and rocks flying as they sped through on their way to their tent the terrace below me. When they stopped beside their tent, out jumped three Franciscan monks, brown robes and all. Not your average speed demons, but crazy drivers after all.
Later, I walked into Assisi and looked around the very nice old town. There were lots of tourists and lots of American voices. It’s a steep place and definitely set up for tourists so I found an ok restaurant for some pasta before heading back to camp and an early night.