It rained. It rained a lot….
…in the night!
But we woke to blue skies!! Well….they were a bit blue! Actually mostly cloudy….but IT WAS NOT RAINING!!
And it did stay that way…..for almost the whole trip! Another double-tonner!
Strava maps are not very useful sometimes….so a bit of context about where we are today:
A good day! A good friday in fact!! Have to laugh though…there in Nz everyone has the annual cringe about pubs, supermarkets and garden centres having to close for the day. God forbid that you might want a beer…or even a geranium…on this holiest of days. But here in Italy…a country renowned for its religious affiliations – Catholic to boot! – everything was open. Building sites were busy. Road construction continued. Nothing! Churches were full…of tourists! (…to be fair we cannot vouch for that!)….. but no evident recognition of the day at all. Quite right too! If only NZ and Uk could understand that religious holidays are as anachronistic as……Humpty Dumpty even! Clinging onto outdated ideology. Still a bit frightening really.
I digress again…it was a gorgoeus ride…and at the 40km mark…coffee called….and minor detour seemed on the cards…only 4km to Todi.
And I had forgotten! Todi is another of those spectacular towns perched on top of an unlikely hill. City even. But 300m of steep ascent away! …..For a coffee which would surely have been available if we had just carried on!
We thankfully however took a wrong turn…and arrived at the car park…..and the only way to carry on up…was on the cable car!! Haha…and they took bikes! Saved us about 50m of final ascent…
…..and we rode into the main square…and it was only then I realised I had been here before! On that return journey from Ancona to Civitavecchia in 2022! Haha! Old age amnesia….! But great to be back here…
One of so many magnificent Italian towns and cities which one has never heard of!!
The clouds gathered as we moved on. To our overnight stop at Nocera Umbra! Another wonderful town…on top of a hill…but less visited even than Todi…or Spello..or….? (Nae and I popped in here too….for a coffee in 2022).
….and where I had to make the call to “booking fuck up”!!
And Silvia was as delightful as we had imagined….who walked us through the maze to her delightful accommodations! To be met by Ken…her Yorkshire beau….simply the loveliest of guys…a cinemagrogapher who fell in love with Nocera Umbra…and then met Silvia…and fell in love with her too.
A guy who knew he belonged when he arrived to live…with his bar tabs paid anonymously…and an old guy who enquired whether he liked truffles…only to arrive back 30 minutes layer with a monster truffle and a bottle of truffle oil! Ken is now offering truffle hunting expeditions (with a little help!). Such a great guy! And such a lovely couple. Who were a actually only helping out a friend (due to that Booking-fuck-up)…and who never usually take single night bookings!!
We met for ‘apperitivo”…but sadly by then…the heavens had opened…and it simply hosed down!! Which somewhat curtailed things.
But a really lovely town. Worth a much longer stay! Barely touched by tourism. a true authentic gem!
Our target restaurant was closed….but we had a superb Tagliata at the place next door to the bar…as our final dinner in Italy!! Two courses even! (Final dinner? It seems like we have just arrived!!)
Early start tomorrow! So it was early to bed!
