Day 35: Ceprano to Fiuggi

October 11, 2023

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Remember that day about a month ago that I divided between "pre-Decathlon" and "post-Decathlon"? If so, you're a very attentive individual, and I commend you for it. It was only memorable to me because it allowed us to gain mastery of fire, which is of utmost importance to us humans.

Anyway, it happened again. We needed to buy more chain lubricant, and while I wanted to just pop in to a bike shop and support local businesses, we were out in the boonies all morning. The Decathlon just happened to come up on my radar screen. Anyway, it's not about the store or the oil or anything. It's just that the day was so similar to the previous one in that the morning was boring and the afternoon was challenging.

We had a wonderful night's sleep at our little apartment. It was absolutely worth going off-route for. It's next to a roaring river and a busy roundabout, but the building is so well soundproofed that you can't hear a thing with the windows closed. It's also dark with the shutters closed. Like a sensory deprivation chamber, I tell ya! We opened the door and felt the cool air waft in. It was about 60F and cloudy. Perfect riding weather!

This is where I ran out of chain lubricant

It took a while to reconnect with Eurovelo 5. We were on some of the most uninspiring road imaginable. I grew impatient and hastened the process of meeting the official route by taking an extra turn towards the village of Castro dei Volsci, or more accurately, the part of it that lies at the bottom of the hill. I still can't believe how many hill towns Italy has!

We were overdue for a break, so we checked out the (of course) hill town of Ceccano. It looked pretty, but we quickly ended up in the middle of a traffic jam, and the only easy-access bar was across the street from a very noisy construction site. We stopped there anyway, making the best of it.

On our way in, I noticed a pedestrian bridge across the river, but we missed it. I made sure we crossed it on our way out.

Looking at the car bridge from the pedestrian bridge

One thing I'll say about EV5 is that while it favors lovely little lanes, those same lanes favor yard dogs. Luckily, all the loose dogs we encountered today were super chill, but you never know when one of the territorial yard mutts will find a way to escape. In case you think I'm paranoid, it's already happened a couple of times on this tour.

On to the post-Decathlon ride. We spotted Ferentino in the distance, and I thought, okay, we're going to ride to the top of that hill and follow a ridge line through some other hill towns until we reach our destination of Fiuggi. Like yesterday's ride. Boy was I wrong!

OK, sure, let's knock out this hill climb

Wait, what? It's turned into a mountain climb!

I really need to pay more attention to the daily road profiles. If we didn't have our mountain legs yet, this would've been really demoralizing, and perhaps even too physically demanding. As it was, we simply faced reality and carried on.

Eventually the grades eased up and thickets of trees provided some much-needed shade. We were able to stop and enjoy the sights here and there.

This mirror selfie didn't turn out so well

Beautiful vista along with some haze. Makes me nostalgic for Southern California.

We were happy to see these signs. Even if drivers don't follow the rules, it seems like somebody cares about us poor cyclists.

Once we reached Lago di Conterno, we were almost home free. On a cooler day we would've stopped and done some birdwatching.

1100 meters of climbing today! Time to celebrate! But first, time to check in and get our bikes parked somewhere safe.

I'm pretty sure those are loaner bikes. Why else would they be arranged in such an orderly fashion?

Our idea of the perfect dinner was a big bottle of Gatorade, a big bottle of Moretti, a bunch of pizza slices, a bag of arugula, and yogurt for dessert. Maybe we're unusual in that regard, but something tells me we're in pretty good company among the bike touring crowd.

I finally pieced together the remainder of our tour. I'll keep it a surprise for now. It's kind of a surprise for us too, because we're going a bit off the beaten path and I don't know what to expect in the way of roads, traffic, etc. One thing is for sure: it won't involve climbing any more mountains!

Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 2,031 km (1,261 miles)

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