Bici, Amici and Italy

​We left San Severino and it was a cool morning.  Around 49 when we left.  So we were layered up with hats and gloves.  However as usual climbing started pretty quick and layers off!   The weather was wonderful.  I love the nip in the air and the light is starting to have that look of fall.   We head into the surrounding hills towards Serrapetrona .  The scenery is lovely.  As we approach Serapetrona we start we to see the  vineyards that produce the Vernaccia wine I spoke of yesterday.  As we roll into the town an old woman steps out to greet us and chat.  She was so happy we were visiting her little town and we got a lot of benvenutis  She was very sweet.   Then past Serrapetrona into a long climb which topped out above tree level with views in every direction.  There was a observatory on mountaintop nearby.  Then downward to Camerino which is a university town and we knew that it suffered severe damage in the ...

We rented a room in an Airbnb for three nights in San Severino Marche.  The reasons were first that due to the devastating flooding in Le Marche which occurred in a large part of our planned itinerary it didn’t seem like we should go there.  Many roads are washed out and towns are dealing with all kinds of damaged infrastructure.  Sadly my grandparents hometown was right in the middle of the water bomb and they had a lot of damage, too. So we needed to rethink where we were going to go prior to meeting the kids in Rome at the beginning of October.  The second reason is I was just plain tired.  Think the constant movement, sleeping in a different bed every night just caught up to me.  The stay here in San Severino has been a pleasant respite.  It is an elegant town and once again we feel like the only foreign tourists in town. It is surrounded by green farm covered hillsides and is very reminiscent of Tuscany landscapes minus all the tourists.   We...

​ Castelluccio, Spoleto, Rome, Home ... the last days Hello again, if you're reading this, then Betsy has once again acquiesced and allowed this guest entry to her blog. Thanks Betsy! This one is about Shawn's and Doug's exit from Betsy's story ... the couple of days that we were turned loose, "into the wild" so to speak, as we made our way from Castelluccio to Spoleto, then to Rome, and eventually to our home in Houghton, Michigan. (Spoiler alert - we made it home!) **** First, a couple of warnings to potential readers: 1: This passage is long. I have the advantage now of writing on a computer, which is very easy compared to a phone. 2: There are a lot of "travel trouble" bits. I'm not any more prone to these things than you are, so I'm not trying to "show off" about the things that happened to us. This stuff happens to everyone, so I guess the warning here is that reading may have some PTSD-like effects stemming from your own trav...

​We leave Casa Di Giulia. It was a nice bnb but I think they forgot about the second b because there was no breakfast.  We made do with a cup of espresso and got underway.  It was supposed to be another easy day and yes the distance was not long - only 43 k or so but there was a fair amount of bike pushing involved and much to our surprise we once again heftily exceeded the 100 to 1 mile ratio!    However, the scenery was rather exceptional today and a lot of the roads were the best kind of rolling hills you can imagine.    We had a few drops of rain but nothing too bad. We passed through San Ginesio where we stopped at a bar for the breakfast we didn’t have earlier. Like much of Central Italy , much earthquake damage is evident and it seems like things are being held together with scaffolding and iron bands.   Onward through lovely small farms, rolling roads with no traffic. We pass through a rather large city, Tolentino and it is lunch time so we beg...

​We just concluded one of our finest bnb stays of the trip at the B&B Terra di Marca.  The hostesses were out of town so the father of the two sisters running the place had to greet us last night.  According to one of the daughters we chatted with the next day, he was so nervous because he speaks no English. It is a good reminder that both sides have to struggle a bit.  But despite his fears, we were able to communicate pretty well. The fact that I could understand him I think set him at ease and he even took us to the floor below our lodging which they are converting to a small restaurant and store to sell local products to show us what he is doing.  He was very sweet and welcoming.   I think their restaurant conversion is brilliant because for the first time we lost the struggle for food.  Earlier we had eaten a couple of pieces of not so good pizza with our apertivi when we got to town. Good thing we did that because that was it.  No more food t...