October 2, 2009
La Cura
Got up at the normal time and the get away was not as bad as expected. Tricia was once again looking up accommodation in Rome on the internet. She gave up though, the nice Dutch couple had left us a pamphlet for Camping Roma it is only 3km from the Vatican so we will definitely try that. Back on the bike after our only rest day we were on the SS2 which was not too busy around the lake and there were great views. We came to a Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery - this was beautifully situated above the lake and as is true of all such cemeteries beautifully kept - it contained 600 graves 17 of them of Kiwis.
Back on the road we saw 2 Roman milestones and the views continued. Then on and up and into Montefiasco an 'up' town. On the way in we saw some people in a cellar and smelt wine so in Ken went. It was a domestic wine making operation. A cement fermentation tank with red grapes which they were about to press off using a small basket press. Tried a small white wine, took some photos and then we were off.
Into Montifiassco where we had a coffee and bought a huge rather nasty hunk of bread. Then on to Vertebro, where we expected to stay on a GHASTLY extremely busy road, we tried to get off and there seemed to be no suitable side roads. We ended up going about 15km with trucks, buses and cars all along a road with businesses and outlets on both sides of it. It was the worst ribbon development we have ever seen. Getting into Vertebro was very difficult but we finally arrived at one of the gates in the city wall.
I minded the bikes and Tricia set off in the direction of an arrow pointing to the Information Centre. It was a hour later before she returned, I was getting rather concerned. It was another case of disappearing signs and no one seemed to know where it was. She had long since given up trying to find it and completely disoriented had spent the time trying to get back to the right gate in the wall.
So we ate our ineeddible bread at the park along side and decided to give up on Vertebro. Tricia rang and got a room which we thought was in Virtello but actually turned out to be in La Cura, another classic case of unrestricted development.
Leaving Vertebro we were determined to get on to quiet roads so headed for San Martino al Cimino. What we hadn't realised was that it was about 800m higher. We pushed most of the way with heavy car traffic and eventually reached the pretty village but didn't really appreciate it because I couldn't see how we would ever get to Virtello. After that much to our surprise it continued up but it was really beautiful with cultivated chestnut orchards. On and on we went and when we got out of the chestnuts there were hoards of cars with people out in the forest hunting for fungi. Eventually we were rewarded with a very satisfying down complete with the stations of the cross. I think this is the most beautiful road we have been on.
La Cura is an ugly little town plonked down on the Via Cassia with no planning. The hotel was good with particularly nice people. The most exciting thing on our walk through the town was the Gelato shop and the most exciting thing for Ken was that he got the washing dry.
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