26/11/24
We should have had a very restful sleep alas Frankie found the early morning cockerel starting 4:30am to be disturbing, and Jonathan disliked the heat of the room. In Italy they’re all very keen on being very warm, all of the time.
It didn’t matter, a couple of fancy Miele machine coffees later and after being talked to death by the nice old lady we had completely forgotten. There was breakfast included, but a lot of the fancier products weren’t vegan. So we made good with the dried toast and jam pots that were in abundance. Excitingly there was a little carton of soya milk though.
We headed off around half past ten, planning to rejoin the route in Faenza, a few kilometres away. We were cycling on what we presumed was the old road repurposed as the cycle path. A very busy road was on the other side of the hedge. There was a Decathlon in Faenza and needing to replace the disintegrated chain whip we thought it was best not to miss the opportunity. Interestingly, they only sold a new style of chain whip. It slots in between the teeth of one of the cogs, and has no chain flapping about that can break.
Faenza was briefly viewed but we trusted the route to show us anything worthwhile stopping for. Probably because we were heading back into the hills today. To head south in Italy we had the choice of staying on the completely flat east coast next to a huge road for weeks on end, or crossing the Apennines, twice. The mountains continue the length of the Italian peninsula. We’d never really considered the terrain of Italy until now, but it is rather mountainous.
As we left the town we started slowly climbing. It was a comfortable climb with a gentle gradient which continued through some pretty villages straddling the Lamone, which we were still following. On the way we were surrounded by Cachi (persimmon) orchards. So many fruits it was crazy that they were so expensive in the supermarkets, while at home they were often 3 for a £1 this time of year, here they were about 90p each.
We were travelling on the SP302, a quieter road but still a route through the mountains and with plenty of places along the way so there was a fair amount of traffic. Often it was made worse by the roadworks that then create spurts of cars shooting up behind you intermittently.
It was a cloudy day, the Sun occasionally brightening the sky, but it wasn’t cold. There was a train line next to us that rose with a perfectly continuous gradient as we meandered above and below it. The mountains rose up around us, covered in trees. None of that naked desolate landscape we’d been normalised to at home. As the Sun came out even more we were suddenly moving fast down a hill and crossing the border into Tuscany. The road was now called the SR302.
The first major town in Tuscany along this road is Marradi and we stopped there to consider our options. We were keen to resume camping finally and being in the hills and woods was the perfect opportunity. However, we struggled to see anywhere suitable on either the satellite maps or the topographic maps. There were a couple of hiking paths behind the town and we had a good look but they weren’t suitable.
There was one Airbnb in the next village, Camurano, which we hoped would respond to us. We decided to continue cycling up there, the road was about to start becoming more steep, and see if we could find a camping spot on the way. While there was one potential place it was overlooked by an old but tall residential building. A dog appeared and began barking incessantly.
We arrived in Camurano, still not hearing anything from the owner of the flat. A woman came outside so we asked her if she had Filipo’s number, the place was tiny so of course she did, and gladly gave it to us. Almost immediately he replied, telling us that the place would be cold and was that okay. Given that it wasn’t remotely cold outside even, we gladly accepted this condition.
His parents soon arrived and opened the garage downstairs where we were greeted by squawking. They had birds in tiny little cages in the garage. It wasn’t clear what they were for but it was tremendously sad to watch them jump around in their cages unable to fly. We had to ignore it and smile.
They turned the pellet burner on and made the bed for us. We were keen just to relax but they insisted on providing detailed instructions in Italian that we had to translate. The man was incredibly vigorous, demanding the full attention of Jonathan by occasionally poking his shoulder. Jonathan was trying to look at his phone to read the translation!
Soon they were gone and having not bought more food we cobbled together a tiny amount of pasta, some garlic bread and some pancakes. There was some cucumber too. As we sat on the sofa we realised just how long we would have to be in the tent when we managed to use it again. Apart from the deadweight we were carrying, it was also really expensive to
The wood pellet burner was ridiculous. It had a hopper at the top that needed filling every 4 hours and drop fed them into a little shiny grate at the front which permanently roared very brightly. The 15kg bags of wood pellets were from Estonia, which apparently is the biggest producer of pellets in Europe. It would appropriate to note that we were surrounded by wood and it seemed an unsustainable practice on the face of it. But maybe we were missing something.
We were going to go higher tomorrow, through the mountains and out the other side. Hopefully it would be nice weather.
Surly They Won't Make It 