October 1, 2024
Are we in a bubble?
Mormanno to Saracena
After yesterday’s mammoth ride we were determined to have an easier day today. We crawled out of bed after an indifferent sleep and wandered down to Luigi’s favourite cafe for some pastries and coffee. Two delicious pastries and 2 perfect cappuccinos for less than 6 euros is half what we’d pay at home. It was after 10.30 by the time we packed up, hauled our bikes up a staircase built for giants and rode 30 metres down the road for another coffee.
It was another perfect day, some would say a bluebird day but I’m wary of over using the word and thus diminishing its value. We climbed back out of town and then followed a disused railway line next to a freeway until it came to an abrupt end at a tunnel which was fenced off. Not wishing to retrace our steps we shimmied around the fence into the gloom of the tunnel, came out the other side and ran into some workers laying a bike path. Luckily there was an access point to the adjoining road which we followed gently uphill across a plateau shielded by the Orsomarso mountains through farmland and olive groves.
We stopped at a cafe opposite the multifunctional centre of the Pollino National Park where our cycle guide book describes it as having the architectural profile of a giant pile of timber.
Of more interest was the huge mozzarella prosciutto and tomato panini that the cafe served up that we promptly devoured. We didn’t eat enough yesterday so we weren’t making that mistake again.
Not long after the big timber pile was a ten kilometre flowing descent into Castrovillari. We’d earned this descent after yesterday’s climbing and barely touched the brakes as we descended into the valley.
From there it was an uphill push to Saracena. With gradients of 5 percent or less it was perfectly manageable. We were sitting in a shady square by 4pm with a gelato in hand comfortable in the knowledge that we hadn’t got lost once, we had drunk enough water and eaten enough food and were at the perfect point of being comfortably buggered rather than being completely stuffed like yesterday.
And then Luciano turned up beer in hand.
Every village has a Luciano and we had found Saracenas. He spoke fluent Italian which was unsurprising, but despite us clearly having no idea what he was saying he continued on uninterrupted. We left the Gelateria after a 15 minute one sided conversation and found a bar further down the hill for a well earned beer. We had an hour to kill before our poorly researched accommodation option became available so I spent the time catching up on the blog and enjoying some post-Luciano quiet time.
Within 10 minutes Luciano appears, pulls up a chair, rolls a smoke and starts hoeing into our complimentary peanuts whilst-blowing huge plumes of smoke across the table. Our previous conversation continued unabated. By now there was no eye contact or response from either of us as that only seemed to encourage him. To his credit he did buy us a couple of beers but that came at a cost. He devoured our crostini whilst rolling more durries.
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Finally the owner of our digs turned up and we followed him down a steep lane and then up some even steeper stone steps to the garden below the bar we’d been sitting at.
I should have twigged when we made the booking as our place was called ‘The bubble room’. Sitting in the middle of the garden perched on a cliffside was an igloo like structure with one double bed and not much else. It was completely Perspex with a wafer thin curtain you could pull around for some privacy. Not that we needed it as we were on a cliff-face but the igloo was surrounded by fairy lights that stayed on all night. With the curtains drawn they fused into one eerie luminescent glow. At one stage I woke and thought I was in my mother’s womb about to be born until I glanced Roberts balding head about 2 feet from me that jolted me back to reality. Yes another night in a double bed with Robert!
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Saracena was a funny old town. Like most Italian towns it was dead until about 5pm and then every man and his dog emerged and converged in the town square. It was almost exclusively old codgers over sixty with hardly a woman in sight. We walked down the road to a smaller square and there it was a slightly more balanced crowd of folk in their 20’s and 30’s. We did find a great little pizza joint but overall it was a slightly weird town with not a great vibe.
Todays highlight was definitely the amazing stat that we didn’t get lost once, closely followed my the mozzarella, prosciutto and tomato panini we devoured whilst staring at the big pile of timber and honourable mention goes to the evening pizza. Simple but delicious and well within our budget of 6 euros.
On the downside we got ripped big time by the bubble room guy who saw our desperation and hit us up for 160 euros.
Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 108 km (67 miles)
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