Surly They Won't Make It

5/12/24

We had a mixed sleeping experience. There were numerous hounds barking all night long, no exaggeration. They endlessly yelped and howled, how anyone sleeps with the noise was beyond us. They are also extremely anxiety inducing and made us question the idea of wild camping ever again.

Once we’d packed away in the morning everything seemed a little brighter. We loved being away by the crack of dawn and went straight onto the track. We were greeted only 50m later by a cheery man who was putting his gun away in his car and was as excited as we were about our journey to Roma. We wondered why on earth we had any worry at all about our wild camping. 

Unfortunately, we were straight into an extremely steep climb into the town of Campognola di Roma. We walked most of it as it was another tuff perched town though slightly less picturesque, from the direction we approached anyhow. We wandered down a one way street through the quiet town that was only just awakening. People were leaving for work and school in their cars that barely fit down the narrow streets. 

At the piazza that opened up in front of us was a coffee shop that we were keen to find. Just what we needed after a less than perfect nights sleep. The proprietor was very friendly and was even willing to add hot water to our espressos, close to being a crime in Italy. We wanted a longer, hot drink though! There was what can only be described as a crate of pastries on the counter and we were disappointed that such things weren’t all vegan, yet. 

Once again we left through a fancy looking porta and were into the newer, less enticing part of the town. It was quite surprising that it was so well developed as when we approached it looked like a very small place! We left by climbing a busy, long and winding road. We then turned onto a road that contoured the base of some steep hills and occasionally had a steep climb the garmin knew nothing of. 

After a few kilometres we descended a long way down, in bright sunshine obviously, into a nature reserve, Parco del Sorbo. The climb into Formello then ensued. Manageable in places, crazily steep in others. At the top were incredible views and we had a snack of nuts and banana, in celebration of the major climbing being done for the day. 

The descent through Formello was fast and full of exciting switchbacks. We felt like we were on the final stretch to Roma now. The roads were all tarmac but they varied in quality. Sometimes they were stripped back to the reinforcement bars below the surface or so bumpy from tree roots that it was like a maze, but it didn’t affect the use of the roads by cars. They seem to be used to it. There were a couple of completely unknown steep parts but we eventually arrived in Prima Porta. 

This was a busy suburb of Roma and it was immediately a trickier place to ride. The route wasn’t well planned here, and it tried to get us onto less busy roads. However, they seemed to be imported from San Francisco. Steeply up and down, repeatedly. We were then encouraged to go through a train station, but there were impenetrable stairs. The garmin was helpful enough to suggest an alternative, a spiral climb over the railway. On the way up another cyclist overtook us, always a good sign. On the other side we joined a cycle path and made it onto our saving grace. 

This was the sanctuary of Roma’s longest cycle path along the river Tiber, that led all the way into the city. It was a dreamy flat path, flush with cyclists, and completely free of cars. It was a painless ten miles or so and we were delivered right to the walls of Vatican City. 

Our accommodation was very close by, and while it was a bit of a pain to locate it overlooked St. Peter’s Basilica. We couldn’t believe how we could be so close, the figures that surrounded the square visible in all their grandeur. The apartment however wasn’t in the best condition. We were obviously grateful for the roof but among other things, the toilet didn’t flush. Well not without taking the lid off to manually start it off.

The Eurospin supermarket wasn’t far and we traipsed there and back feeling rather tired now. The prices were okay, and Frankie picked up a cheeky 500g bar of fondente. We decided once again to have pizza and as we’ve come to expect there is almost always tofu available in supermercatos now. We weren’t going anywhere that evening and made the most of the opportunity to rest, and eat homemade bread, jam and biscuits.