October 9, 2024
The saga of the cap
Catanzaro to Girifalco
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Our rest day in Catanzaro was exactly as stated; a rest day. That was without doubt the hardest first week of any tour I’ve done. Kudos to Rob for sticking to his unconventional training regime despite many of us doubting its efficacy. He proved us all wrong.
In the morning we wandered out for a coffee, got aimlessly lost in the maze of alleyways in the old town and then had another coffee.
On my wanders I stumbled across the US Catanzaro 1929 football club merch shop. They play in the second tier; the Serie B in Italian football. As is the Langley tradition you have to immediately support this team and at least buy one piece of merch. My new team is currently struggling in 16th position so they need all the support they can get.
Prior to this visit I had actually messaged our host Robert to see where I could find a cotton cap as I had lost my red one. He suggested an obscure little shop run by 2 delightful ladies who greeted me as the ‘Australian’. Robert had obviously rung them and in this haberdashery/ elderly women’s underwear shop they did have 3 sports caps gathering dust on a shelf high up near the ceiling. With a 3 metre prongy hooky thing the assistant got them down. They had a plastic strap with holes at the back rather than Velcro and were synthetic rather than cotton but I felt obligated to buy one as they ladies were so nice. “Conta costa” I said in fluent Hungaro-Italian and her reply I interpreted as 3 Euros. That’s what I figured it was worth. As I got out some coins she wrote 30 euros on a scrap of paper. With her welcoming smile rapidly draining from her wrinkly face she gave an inflammatory waggle of her finger. “No..No…No” I said using the international language of No. She immediately dropped it to 20 euros at which point I feigned a bilious attack and walked out. The stupid thing was that right next door was 2 euro shop where I found an exact replica of the red cap I had lost for the unsurprising cost of 2 euros.
Lunch was back in the apartment wolfing down a ridiculous amount of fresh mozzarella with tomato and prosciutto and a local beer. As Rob drifted off to sleep I mapped the rest of our trip and got the blog up to date. And before we knew it, it was past 6 o’clock.
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Earlier today I had spied a little trattoria in one of the alleyways and thought that would be a good dinner spot. After a peroni at a cafe in the square I surprised both Rob and myself by stumbling across said trattoria, ‘The Morzella alla Catanzarese’ with apparent ease. I knew this was a good pick as the entrance was plastered with photos and memorabilia of the glory days of US Catanzaro 1929.
Between the starter of a delicious white bean soup and the spaghetti with olives tomato and breadcrumbs I wandered back to the foyer to scrutinise the photos of my beloved team. Mimo has owned the trattoria for over 30 years and is a passionate US Catanzaro fan like myself. He spent a good 15 minutes talking me through the climactic moments of their 95 year history. His favourite photograph was the lobbed goal in the final game of the season some 25 years ago that got them promotion to Serie A. He had tears welling up in his eyes as he professed that moment to be one of the greatest days in his life. For me John Aloisi’s penalty to get us to the 2006 World Cup just pips it, but only just.
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Eventually Mimo returned to the kitchen after too many other diners started giving him evil stares. Rob had his usual desert of Tiramisu whilst I went for the Italian classic of crème caramel which was the weirdest crème caramel I’ve ever had and tasted accordingly.
Refreshed after a solid sleep and reenergised legs we met Robert at the allotted time by his garage where the bikes were stored and ventured into the wild streets of Catanzaro to test out my new mapping skills. We wound our way effortlessly down through the narrow city streets before hitting a busier road for a short stretch and finally turning off onto an innocuous lane that led us back into the countryside.
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The first half of today’s ride was mainly downhill leaving most of the day’s climbing after we stopped in Martenello for coffee and pastries.
Over coffee 3 Venetian cyclists rolled in who were also doing the Ciclovi Parcia and we criss-crossed paths with them over the next hour going up the main climb.
Over the top we found an olive grove with an open gate and set up our chairs out of view of the road to enjoy the peace and quiet and have our usual lunch. We lingered for some time as we were in no rush to get the last ten kilometres done into Girifalco. We’ve learnt that almost everything is shut until around 4pm and this olive grove was a perfect spot to relax.
After climbing a little more we made it over the top and coasted downhill through a larch forest before the final climb up to Girifalco. It was quite warm and humid all day today so the thought of a gelato in the town centre was a significant motivator to get up the hill. Alas at 3.15 the town was deserted with only one bar open, so coke was a poor substitute. The barman did find a BnB for us about 2 kilometres out of town. The bad news was it was all uphill at roughly 10% gradients. The good news was that we are bang smack on tomorrow’s route so we’ve already knocked part of the upcoming climb.
The three Italians we met on the road plus an English couple are all staying in the same BnB. Dinner is up the road in a Pizzeria with Enzo the host driving us all up there. As much as I like chatting with Rob it will be nice to have some new faces to converse with.
Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 461 km (286 miles)
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