Alison and Alison and the art of re-tyrement

Distance: Barletta to Benevento 168 km in 2 hours by train. Benevento to Ruviano 28.8 miles Medieval pilgrims had fewer practical choices than the modern day pilgrim. Yesterday morning we made a practical decision to do without all our high tech routing equipment and take the train on an unrideable section of the Eurvelo 5.…

Cycling distance 29 miles Walking 5 miles Temperature 79 degrees When we cycled the Camino to Santiago Di Compostela the route was well sign posted and it was hard to get lost. On a daily basis I say to Alison that you wouldn’t know we were on the EuroVelo 5 route or the Via Francigena.…

Distance 42.34 miles Elevation gain 778ft Temperature 79 degrees The Cathedral of San Andrea in Venosa was open. We venture inside before the service starts. We have a new friend. She is horrified at the routes that Kevin has taken us and has made some interesting suggestions. We don’t like to say we are quietly…

Distance. 40.45 miles Elevation gain: 2116 ft Temperature 79 degrees Every morning the routing goes awry almost immediately. We are becoming blasé about our direction of cycling. Today we left our accommodation and followed a car going in the wrong direction up a one way street. Strength in numbers we thought. Think again. The car…

Distance 17.5 miles Another easy day planned. We felt confident in our routing and arriving on time. We cycled across miles of farmland with no villages. We heard a helicopter approach. It circled, went away and then returned to do another low circle over us. We are very sorry that we forgot to leave the…

Walked. 6 miles We thought we would treat ourselves to a day of rest and visit some of the sites of Matera. A gentle start to the day and we even booked accommodation for the next two nights. We booked ourselves onto a walking tour for today and arrived at the designated meeting spot, Panifico…

Distance 23.4 miles Elevation gain 1,194 ft The website said the Cathedral in Castellaneta was open from 8.00am. Just after 8.00am we went in search of another stamp for our Credenziale. We arrived at the Cathedral and it was closed. It did not look promising. Eventually just after 9.00 am the Cathedral opened and we…

Distance. 40.1 miles Temperature 28 degrees A day we won’t forget in a hurry. Kevin reports that our 23 mile journey will take us 1 hour 40 minutes. We arrive at our accommodation at 19.10 having cycled 40 miles. Cycling to and from the out of town shops was an experience. Drivers double and triple…

Distance 44.44 miles Temperature 29 degrees We are definitely under surveillance. Most of the properties we have stayed in have remote access and the owner watches as we try to gain access. We miss the personal touch. Last night’s accommodation was a huge quadruple room for the two of us . All very pleasant with…

Distance 40.94 miles Temperature 29 Up early and we had left by 8.15am determined to show Kevin who is in control. Our speed peaked at 22.8 miles per hour and we were a little anxious that the over ambitious Kevin might alter his predictions accordingly. We are indebted to Tony, who has sent a link…