Distance 45 miles

Ascent 3,475 feet ( Yes, you read that correctly)

We were up early, ready for a long day ahead.

We had a number of big climbs today. It should be impossible to lose the route half way up a rural hill climb, but we did just that. We realised we were off grid and had no option but to continue climbing up and up. Eventually we came to a mountain pass. How did that happen? At the top of the 10% climb a policeman passing in a car shouted at us. We can only assume he was congratulating us on our stamina.

But not for us. The clue is in the name of our accommodation, the Albergo Duomo. A Duomo is normally at the top of the town, on the highest spot. We still had a couple of hundred feet of punishing climbing on cobble stones to go.

No signal and the WiFi wasn’t working so no blog. Inexplicably Alison managed to do one lesson of Duolingo and then the signal was lost. Extremely useful as she can now chat knowledgeably about hobbies.

A reader has contacted us to say he has given up reading the Daily Mail entirely but instead reads the Daily Blog exclusively. Thank you Denys. We think we have the travel, fashion, beauty and technology covered and are working on expanding into other sections.

Good night