October 17, 2023
Day 41: Roma to Fiumicino
Back where we started
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The rain continued through most of the night, but by dawn, the sky was clear. With a checkout time of 10am and a short ride to Fiumicino, our strategy was to pack verrry slowly, and to look for a sunny spot in which to dry our tent. We executed this so well that by the time we were ready to head to the bar for another shot of espresso, it was already 9:50. As tent campers on a Tuesday during the off-season, we assumed that they wouldn't care in the least when we left, but we still felt some obligation to scoot along. So we folded up our slightly damp camping gear and prepared to ride our last ride of the tour. It sounds so sad when put that way!
If there's one thing we've learned about metropolitan Rome, it's that one should never expect flat terrain. Our legs felt fresh again after the long rest, but we were a little bit out of shape. We had one long climb on a narrow road with lots of traffic that left me pretty winded when I stopped to wait for my dear wife to catch up. The backroads Komoot found weren't backroadsy enough. We didn't panic at any step along the way, as anything the route could throw at us would be mercifully short.
We shopped for lunch just before meeting the Tiber River. I had to finagle the route a bit in order to get us on to the bike path, and I soon understood why: it was doubletrack. Super rideable, so no problem. Plus, we had these encouraging directional signs to make us feel welcome:
About 10 minutes in, a police car pulls up behind us. What'd we do now, officer? I guess they were just doing a routine patrol. They asked if we were OK, where we're from, where we're going, the usual questions, then wished us a good day. How nice!
We found a good lunch spot and chowed down. During this entire trip, one of the prerequisites for any break spot has been shade. Really, it's the most important one. But not today! It was a perfect 70F or so, and a sunny bench was calling us. It started to heat up just a little bit towards the end, but at no point was it uncomfortable.
Apparently our adventure wasn't over yet, as the doubletrack narrowed to singletrack. Then the nicely-mowed trail became overgrown with reeds, then also with a thorny shrub. Then we started hitting the muddy patches. It was getting pretty nasty, and we kept telling ourselves: we're almost there, we're almost there. Meanwhile, our bikes were starting to complain about how gunked up they'd become. We both immediately recalled the quagmire we'd found ourselves in south of Sevilla a few years ago, but we laughed it off because this wasn't nearly so bad. We did, however, bemoan the fact that we'd have to find some way to clean up our bikes before bringing them into our apartment in Fiumicino.
Soon our luck improved with dirt-and-gravel, and then the holy grail of a smoothly-paved asphalt path.
Before we knew it, we were back in familiar territory. It felt so good!
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The apartment had everything we needed, and then some. Ground floor, laundry sink for bike cleaning, washing machine, drying rack, etc.
After getting settled in (which included a lot of bike cleaning) we crossed the street for a celebratory espresso. Then we crossed the street the other way to shop for dinner. Everything is so convenient! The confusion of those first few days in Italy feel so far behind us.
Speaking of convenience, after 4 days of camping, we hardly knew what to do with all this newly-found comfort. Somehow we managed to make the best of it.
The moment of truth arrived when I contacted Riccardo from our first two nights' stay in Fiumicino exactly 6 weeks ago. He replied right away. I asked him when would be a good time, and he said "How about now?" Music to our ears (ok, our eyeballs)! We walked the two blocks to his place, where he was standing outside with the bike boxes. This was actually our first time meeting him, because he had come down with a cold when we first arrived, and he didn't want to spread it. He's a super nice guy, and he really made our trip by keeping the boxes safe for us! We gifted him a bottle of wine, which he appreciated.
After dinner, we walked over the pedestrian bridge that separates the two halves of town. We soon realized that the north side is pretty swanky! Or at least the little bit that we saw of it. We'll explore it in more depth tomorrow.
It turned out to be a pretty action-packed day after all! Almost all our ducks are in a row, and that makes me very happy. The usual last-minute scrambling and the resulting stress just aren't an issue right now. Maybe later. But maybe not!
Today's ride: 28 km (17 miles)
Total: 2,162 km (1,343 miles)
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