Bella Italia Stage 15

Calascio to Popoli Terme

Strava: 34.6 km, 101m, 1:17, 69 shifts

While we originally had plans for another big day today, I think we were all happy to redirect to a town with a bike shop to get Andrew’s pedal situation solved. This meant a very easy downhill cruise, nearly a rest day.

It was so nice sleeping under warm blankets. We were 1,200m up in the mountains and the weather was cooler than usual. We took a leisurely walk down through the passageways of Calascio to the bar where we had pastries, coffee and cioccolato caldo looking out at the gorgeous view.

We walked back up the scenic way, checking out the church and other buildings, some remodelled like our apartment, some not, and some vacant. Calascio dates from the early middle ages and is interesting. I love coming across places like this where there are no tourists except us and it’s just locals going about their lives. The population here is 128.

We headed out after 11 and first coasted down the hill 800m. That took us halfway to Popoli. We arrived at 12:30, in plenty of time to visit the bike store before it closed at 13:00. It was small but crammed with good stuff including a nice pair of pedals for Andrew, socks for Wytze and a headlight for me.

Next up was shopping for dinner. We went to a cheese stand set up in a street, a fruit/veggie store and a supermarket. Daniel had a hankering to cook again and a near rest day like this is a perfect opportunity. It was way before check-in time so we had some panini and drinks, a nice cool beer for me. Then some gelato.

The apartment was 100m away and our hostess was outside looking for us. She showed us around the older but very nice apartment. I didn’t even need a shower as the weather is very cool. We had ridden in jackets, first time except for last night’s night ride.

Napping occurred in the afternoon, that much I know. And it was nice to have time for a fun three way video call with Katie and Frannie. But Daniel had been busy and suddenly it was dinner time. He made a great dinner, and we had a cheese plate so big we couldn’t finish it. We had Prosecco and a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo red. Great day, essentially off the bikes.