October 18, 2024
To Barletta
tough night, easy day
Sleep is not coming easily for either of us. Jet lag, a very early morning start and coming down with cold symptoms made it difficult for us to feel rested as we got out of bed. We were packed and moving our bikes to the street by 07:00 hours. The roads were much quieter in the early morning, making it an easy ride to the train station. Inside the station we folded and bagged the bikes and waited. On the schedule monitors, track numbers are usually assigned to the trains 20-30 minutes before departure. Track 11 became listed and we were off through the ticket gates. We stored our bikes and gear in the ample space provided on the train and found our seats. Luckily our two side by side seats were among the few that were facing in the direction of travel - a requirement for Pat to enjoy the ride. It is almost always seemingly impossible to know the direction of travel in advance.
The train headed out of the station in a southward direction toward Naples and turned East at Caserta to begin crossing through valleys in a rugged / mountainous part of Italy. Just beyond the hills our stop was Barletta on the coast. It was an interesting train ride but many sights were obscured by fog in the mountains, thick vegetation lining the tracks and the rain streaming down the windows. I kept thinking what a difficult bike ride that this would be in the deserted looking landscape. We arrived at the Barletta station around noon and quickly got to work reassembling our bikes on the train station platform. We have completed this trick many times before.
It was a short ride into the old part of town and, as the map below shows, it took a few tries to find our room opposite the Santa Maria Maggiore cathedral! Our entry was initially blocked by a large wedding party assembling outside the church. It was fun to watch everyone dressed in their finest and a group of men in full uniform carrying swords. Once we made it through the celebrating group, we found that our room was not quite ready. We could store our gear here now and we head out for some lunch.
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Returning to our room after lunch we crashed, attempting to regain some lost sleep. It was now becoming clear that our colds were getting the better of us but a bowl of soup for dinner would be exactly what the doctor would order. Easier said than done. After checking several restaurant street menus not a bowl was to be found. All but giving up on the quest, we stumbled upon a small restaurant off the main street that had a zuppa del giorno on their menu. With the help of the owner and Google translate, today`s soup was a spicy bean soup. We went for it and took seat in the empty restaurant.
It took about 30 minutes to prepare the soup so we were certain that it was not just a few cans being opened and heated in a pot. We waited patiently as the only guests in the restaurant that was operated by this one man show. The zuppa arrived with several chucks of bread and was terrific. It was a good choice to help clear the sinuses.
Barletta`s pedestrian zone with its large marble stone roads are quite attractive. With rain in the forecast for the next day or so we both agreed that staying here will be just fine.
Today's ride: 2 km (1 miles)
Total: 7 km (4 miles)
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