Day 3 was one of my favorite riding days. We did another 30 mile route and biked our way to Spello, our next stop. (We averaged about 30 miles a day each day.) I haven’t mentioned how nerve-racking leaving each morning out of the town was for me. Keep in mind we were biking in a single row of ten people alongside crazy Italian drivers whipping past us! Since we were clipped in, stopping on a dime was tough. Also, roundabouts in the towns were pretty crazy with cars coming from every direction. Very intense! I usually went very slow and ended up walking through a few intersections before we actually got out of town each morning.
Ok, so we both look like sweaty ragamuffins in this pic but don't we kind of look like pros in our jerseys?? Ha! (wearing my new Ireland bike jersey Carolyn got me!)
Another day of biking through the beautiful Italian countryside in the sunshine with birds chirping away. Does life get any better than this? We passed huge fields of red poppies that grow like weeds there. The terrain this day was a lot more my speed and was what we considered rolling. When we climbed we actually had downhills for relief! A good part of this ride was on tree covered streets with lots of shade so that helped with the heat and was really pretty.
Lunch stop- one of my favorite pics from the trip.
Our lunch stop was in a super tiny village where we all got paninis before the climb in the afternoon. Our next stop was a visit to the monastery where they filmed the “English Patient”. Afterward, I officially joined the “Chain Gang” and braved the last hill of the day with Karl and some of our new bike buddies. It was a big, steady climb and I told the van I’d let him know when I’d had enough and he could pick me up at the bottom of the very steep part. At the top I asked when the super steep part would come up and they said I just biked it! Go me! I was finally getting my biking legs in gear! We were laughing saying after this trip we’d be in shape to start biking…haha.
view of Montalcino as we bike our way to Spello
We landed back at our new hotel for the night in Spello (again, going off memory so not entirely sure this town is correct). We were lucky to have another pool to jump in when we got back. It rained on us for the first time on the way to dinner. Another amazing Italian dinner that night to replace all the calories we burned biking that day and a lot more!
I have to type this all out while I remember. The blog is serving as a trip journal for us too since we‘re expecting to forget some of the details as we go. Karl’s idea of bringing along the netbook was a good one and we’ve been using all the trains and planes to journal as we’re in route to different places.
You guys look great!
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