11/12/24
It was a foggy morning though the forecast suggested it should be sunny. Presumably it would burn through somewhere or sometime we hoped. We’d become accustomed to beautiful sunny weather. We had some fried kale with orange followed by more of the chocolate pasta for breakfast.
We left the old tyre in the garage and hoped it would be useful for someone else in the future. About a hundred metres down the road we came across a sign telling us the road was closed at the turning we were supposed to take. It wasn’t a fake closure either, the bridge, like every bridge in Italy, was being repaired and it was impassable.
There was a marked diversion along wide, but quiet, roads, which we followed for a few miles. It was still foggy as we crossed a large concrete bridge across the railway. We had heard the high speed trains all evening and morning from the house. It was clearly a dividing line for communities, there couldn’t be crossings so the people relied on bridges to reach areas that would have never been hard to reach prior to its construction.
The route took us up one small climb and then through many miles in of farmland. The fog dramatically rising from the fields. As we headed further east towards the town of Roccasecca the clouds began to part ahead of us revealing glorious mountain tops ahead. The Sun began to make more and more of an appearance and as we crossed a bridge it was almost like entering another land.
We could see the aptly named Roccasecca ahead of us now. A huge rock with three visible church towers, each higher than the last. It looked like quite a climb. As we got closer however, we instead went around the side of the town. Still climbing but without the steepness we’d originally apprehended.
We rode past a large modern sculpture, and then through a market as it was being packed away. The Sun was out in full force, but when we were in the shade it felt chilly. We were still a long way below the dominating rock we’d originally seen, and we passed to its side on a road that warned us it was closed due to a landslide.
We ignored the signs and decided that they looked aged so we would chance our luck. It was the best case scenario, the road had large concrete barriers so cars couldn’t pass but there was a large enough gap for use to get our bikes through.
The route was easy going, on tarmac and downhill overall, for about 15km into Cassino. We stopped just before we arrived to snack on dates and biscuits as well as discuss our options for the evening. After Cassino was a large ascent over a pass in the mountains and we’d need to make it this afternoon and finish later or wait till the morning. We were optimistic we could make it.
In Cassino we attempted to find a bike shop that was actually open to get some replacement spokes in case another one broke, but every shop was closed due to the siesta again. We rolled out of the town on more easy tarmac and looking back could now see the incredible monastery of Monte Cassino. It’s on a hill hundreds of metres above the town, and its perfect square outline looked drawn on.
To our north was the main road, the SS6, but we were on a small road that passed through Taverne Vecchie. Then there was a left turn down an unpaved gravel track. We were a mere mile from the start of the climb and told ourselves it couldn’t last long as we walked down a very rough path and cycled through muddy puddles. After a few hundred metres the path crossed a road and we were very close to crossing the SS6. But the track deteriorated quickly into impassably deep puddles. We turned around, and headed to the SS6.
It was a busy road with many trucks but still only single carriageway and we only had to endure it for 500 metres. It was painless and we wished that we’d skipped the first track too. When we turned north we actually saw the blue sign with gold stars for the EV5. We hadn’t seen one in a long time. A good omen we hoped.
The long climb started here and was around five miles long. We were still in blissful sunshine but it was about half three and there was only an hour and a half of light left. The climb was to take most of that time, and it wound up the hillside with a mostly consistent gradient of around 4-5%. It was a well maintained road, with very few cars, only people seemingly surveying their olive trees. All the traffic was on the SS6 below, and went through a tunnel instead.
Their loss we thought, at least in this weather. We were treated to beautiful views across the mountains, only getting better and better as we rode the switchbacks that looked back whence we came. The climb never gave us the never-ending feel they sometimes do and we reached the top exactly where it had looked to be for the last hour and a half.
At the top we put our lights on and wrapped up as usual, fleeces and wind jackets, before crossing the boundary from Campania to Molise that the pass marks. We’d actually left Lazio (the province Roma is in) earlier in the day, only after looking at the map did we know. The road immediately became less well maintained, a common result of crossing a border.
We raced down in the low light, now with a new but no less incredible view of the mountains and towns in front of us. The lights of the houses had started to come and they speckled the landscape like Christmas lights. A huge snow covered mountain could be seen in the distance.
We’d banked on the descent to let us cover the remaining miles quickly, and it worked well. There was only one small section of downhill gravel track to pass in the dark after we’d been through the pretty village of Ceppagna, on our way to Venafro.
We arrived at the B&B we’d booked on Booking.com, but there were no signs so we wondered if we had the wrong place at first. Deborah soon arrived, a very friendly and helpful host. She let us store our bikes in the lower part of the house and the accommodation was very comfortable. She even let us use the kitchen which isn’t normally allowed but we were very grateful to be able to have a hot meal.
We walked to the shop, about 5 minutes away, not that the streets lent themselves to walking even in the town. The pavements were intermittent, and parking was the dominant use of the space. We couldn’t find any tofu so we opted for beans and passata instead. As usual we got some bread and jam too.
We ate our feast and watched another Bond film. We wouldn’t have any left soon. Nowhere in Italy really has teapots and often no kettle, so we made our camomile tea in a saucepan. Tomorrow should be much flatter, a welcome change.
Surly They Won't Make It 