Scilla was such a quiet place last night! So, it was a bit of a shock going to sleep when we heard guys shouting just yards away, like they were watching a soccer game, or just drunk, or both. These walls must be paper thin. This kept on for awhile, until they finally shouted their way down the street and out of earshot.
And then returned, still shouting. Why bellow so loudly, in such a small quiet place? Finally, past midnight, they move on again. A few hours later, they’re back, still at it. We both wake up in the morning exhausted.
We have a quite light breakfast at our little self serve B&B. It’s in a great spot, but isn’t itself great so we’re not recommending it. Definitely come to Scilla though if you get the chance. It looks as beautiful and inviting this morning as it did last night as we bike north and out of town.
I was surprised when Elizabeth sent me this photo last night and reminded me she was here on her tour of Sicily last spring. I guess we know who inherited all the looks in the family!
We’re really surprised by the coast road here. I didn’t really know what biking in Calabria would be like - I couldn’t find much information or first hand accounts of cycling here. The locals know though, and we encounter many day riders zipping up and down the coast for the next ten miles. An excellent, quiet cycling road in a spectacular location.
Looking back at Scilla, biking north along the coast. The coming ten miles are some of the finest coastal riding we’ve see anywhere in Italy. Many bikes, few cars.
Yup, I was right - it’s a climb. Here we’re stopping to look back across Bagnara Calabra, with Scilla still visible down the coast. Farther off, the Strait of Messina and western Sicily.
The view ahead. We’re going to the top, but not directly. First, we switchback up a thousand feet behind me to the right, and then cross that deep ravine at the top.
One last expansive view south before crossing the ridge and dropping off the north side, past Palmi and through unsightly Gioia Tauro. The next fifteen miles aren’t really fun at all, so let’s just fast forward through them. OK?
After we crest the large headland north of Bagnara Calabra though, the charm quickly disappears. After capping out at 1,800’ we quickly lose it all, drop back to sea level, and for the next fifteen miles bike across the rather ugly sprawl of Gioia Tauro and its industrial surroundings. We just treated it as an opportunity to keep a steady pace and get through it safely and quickly. If we ever came back this way I’m sure we’d find a way to go inland and skirt the flats.
Finally past it, we find a bit of beach to enjoy our lunch and then start climbing again. The roads leading to Tropea, on the far side of the massive ridge to the north, are very convoluted and complex. I’ve never been sure what the best route through here would be, but the one I picked works poorly. It’s very quiet at least, but too quiet - it eventually dead ends. After backtracking, we end up on a road with signs pointing to Tropea so we decide to just follow the signs. They take us on a great route along the shoulder ofthe headland, and through a five mile stretch that is no longer passable by automobile.
Tropea looks like a charming little place - our host last night described it as the Calabria’s Positano (the famous, glittering gem on the Amalfi Coast). That looks like a large overstatement, but it is definitely attractive. We’ll be here for three nights, for reasons you’ll just have to wait to understand, staying in another tiny accommodation that you’ll have to wait to learn more of also. But you can at least look at our home of the moment and use your imagination. See you tomorrow.
That worked great fast forwarding through Gioia Tauro! We hardly noticed the traffic and the unsightly, somewhat notorious sprawl of the place. Here we are sitting on the beach by ourselves, staring ahead to the second climb of the day.
Scott AndersonTo Jen RahnReally! I tried to convince GBO to go over and have words with him, but he doesn’t speak Italian. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
So this isn’t something we like to see on a long, hard day. Our chosen route gradually deteriorates, then dead ends at a locked gate. We consider shaking on the gate and pointing out to someone that our GPS says we can bike through, but no one is around. No choice but to turn back and make a long day longer.
Past Rosara, we stop for a look back across the fifteen mile stretch we fast forwarded through. It looks so attractive from a distance - maybe we should have gone through it more slowly after all.
At this point we still aren’t sure what route we’ll take, but we’ll eventually land on that diagonal line across the slope. Our GPS says it doesn’t go through, but it’s wrong this time. Hey, isn’t that Stromboli out there?
Roads like this are awesome. #1: cars can’t get through, so it’s just us and a few walkers. #2: the views ahead and across the Tyrrhenian Sea are stunning. #3: we’re staying fairly low, rather than climbing up to the summit over a thousand feet above us.
Oh, there’s Stromboli. I should have taken a panorama so we could get the complete chain in. Our road eventually will drop down toward that point and then roll along above the coast for a few miles before finally dropping to Tropea.
We’re about fifteen minutes late getting to our apartment, so we’re sorry to find our route blocked by the crowd watching this puppet show. Impossible to muscle through, and we’re stuck in the middle so we can’t back out either. Nothing to be done but stay put and watch the show.
We’ve seen a few of these tight, steep staircases now. This one is a bit tricky and quite steep. Hard on the knees, and a bit scary if you’re backing don this in the dark of night. I see the point of that doubled staircase we saw earlier, where it was a much smaller drop between stairs.
Ride stats today: 55 miles, 4,300’; for the tour, 1,098 miles, 75,200’
Today's ride: 55 miles (89 km) Total: 1,098 miles (1,767 km)
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Kurt BaehlerHi Rachel, i can see why you liked Tropea so much, it is even nicer coming from Gioia Tauro...
Cheers
Kurt Reply to this comment 2 years ago
