Alison and Alison and the art of re-tyrement

Cycling adventures in retirement

Day 22 Rome to Orvieto

Distance 66 miles by train

Cycling 6 miles

Ascent 625 ft

Alison promised an easy day today. We had booked our bikes onto the train to Orvieto. Lovely.

Getting on a train is a palaver with bikes and panniers. Getting off the train is pandemonium. Particularly when the doors don’t open and a fellow passenger tells you the train is about to leave. We made it just in time. I had visions of our bikes in Orvieto and luggage in Florence.

The train station is at the bottom of the hill in Orvieto. Hill sounds inadequate but mountain would be an exaggeration- just. Opposite the station is a funicular that should have taken us plus bikes to the top. Not today. Service suspended. Not quite the easy day we had planned. A climb to our accommodation.
The view from the top was spectacular.
The Basilica is extraordinary. A gothic style building so different to the Baroque and Renaissance architecture everywhere else. Stripes on the outside.
Stripes on the inside.
Stripes in the underground tunnels.

It is hilly and cycling was delayed today as my bike’s brakes failed. We made our second visit to a bike shop and I now have fully functioning brakes. Comforting as I am going to need them tomorrow.

We are staying in a converted monastery. Very quiet, no air conditioning, no WiFi, simple furniture. Now that we are tourists rather than pilgrims I thought that there might be a change in our frugality. Of course not. But at least we are not camping. It could be so very different.

Good night.

alisonmiddleditch

2 responses to “Day 22 Rome to Orvieto”

  1. chrisincarshalton avatar
    chrisincarshalton

    We are so enjoying ylur travels!

    And we feel privileged that they will end in Venezia!

    Enjoy

    Love

    C and S

    xx

    >

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  2. malcolmchoat8206f59a7e avatar
    malcolmchoat8206f59a7e

    Sorry, had a break in transmission due to laptop problems.

    Many congratulations on reaching Rome, the big halfway marker in your epic journey.

    Told Elizabeth next door of your achievement and she was suitably impressed and send her best wishes for the rest of the journey.

    Now we look forward to see you wiggle your way across the map of Italy. Will your team of travel guides manage to agree an sensible routing, not containing wild goose chases, dead ends and ploughed fields? Will the Italians come up with cycle routes that actually exist on the ground and are not just on a piece of paper gathering dust in an office?

    Only time will tell and we are confident you will face all thrown at you with your usual good humour.

    Love & best wishes

    Malcolm & Evelyn

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