Bella Italia Stage 11

Semproniano to Montefiascone

Strava: 73.8 km, 1,194m, 3:58, 308 shifts

We somehow seem to be about halfway through this adventure already. Today we met our buddies doing our route backwards with Bike Dreams, the Dutch bike touring company I’ve done three big tours with. We also finished the third GPS segment of six on our Italy Unite route.

To meet up with Bike Dreams we had to have a slow start so looked around Semproniano in the morning, leaving at 10:30. At the planned place, 10 km along, Ype had just arrived in his lunch van. We had a nice reunion with him, then quickly the fastest riders arrived, guys doing the paved option. A bit later dirtier riders showed up, all happy. We ended up staying for a few hours; it was amazing to see so many people I knew from previous tours, over a dozen. Right after we said goodbye and took off, we met Greg bringing up the rear – I had last seen him five years ago in South America. Cheers to every one of you riding Bike Dreams Strada Italia!

We headed down the road, soon turning off on the gravel route. There were long sections of dirt road and trail with lots of puddles to dodge and some slippery climbs and descents. It started sprinkling and kept up until the end. Around 5 pm we stopped for drinks, cakes and warm sandwiches – good plan.

By then we were riding around Lago di Bolsena. We were staying in the town of Montefiascone, which, as typical, is at the top of a hill. It gently rained but I had to remove my jacket. Getting wet is better than being too hot. We got up to the town and our apartment was right there. The hostess showed us around, and where to park our bikes, outside in the rain. After a much needed shower, I went out to clean up my bike to bring it inside and the bike fairy had already cleaned all our bikes! Wytze is the best bike fairy.

After laundry it was time for dinner. We walked up the hill to the old town and had a great dinner. With local red wine, cantucci with sweet wine for dessert and Amaro for a nightcap. So good. The weather looks iffy for tomorrow so we’ll decide in the morning how far to ride, or to have a rest day.