Bella Italia Stage 16

Popoli Terme to Sant’Eufemia di Maiella

Strava: 63.2 km, 1,988m, 4:44, 315 shifts

We had a full breakfast in our apartment, yogurt, fruit, toasted focaccia with cheese and omelet, tea etc. We couldn’t even finish last night’s leftover pasta. It was raining as we packed up but stopped by the time we got all the bikes downstairs and were ready to roll at 9.

Our first goal was to get back onto the Italy Unite gravel track. The designers of the track would be proud of how we did it. Instead of taking the simple main road up, we added maybe 500m of climbing, got yelled at by toxic dump workers for going through their very closed gate, then up a gravel route that was so steep and rocky we had to push for a while. Then an 800m climb up a barely used mountain road into the cold clouds over 1,000m up. Finally, we descended 500m on a crappy rocky trail to a tiny town where we rejoined the Italy Unite route. The little bar there was so friendly and fun. Cookies and cappuccino made with Nutella for me.

The rain started while we enjoyed the bar so we got cold and wet as the descent continued. We followed the gravel track even when it went completely off-trail, riding through wet muddy fields where it appeared no one ever went. We had a couple of long climbs then, mostly on small paved roads. We came out at a town only five km from our destination but instead of taking that simple paved route we followed the track, 14 km with a giant 500m climb in the rain. At one point I was surprised by a very guttural growl behind me and a big sheepdog was chasing me. As soon as I hit the gas to try and pass Daniel, it gave up chasing. Riding through the cold mist in the rain was weird with strange noises coming from nearby invisible cows.

Finally we hit the summit and had a very cold wet cruise down to our town. It’s a tiny old village with one B&B. We found a sign to it, then found it, but no answer to phone or knocking so we had to retire to the bar below aptly named The Refugio. The hot chocolate there was so spectacularly thick that all of us had it. It took an hour to get the rooms set up and I finally had to change into dry clothes to avoid freezing.

We rode up, were let in and immediately turned on the heater set at 28°! I was ok just sitting in the hot air blast but finally my turn in the shower came and that was great too, cranked to 🔥 🔥 🔥. Wytze put in the laundry and we ate snacks and laughed about the day.

After some writing, I fell asleep in bed, bliss. But soon I had to wake up for dinner. There are two restaurants in this town but only one that didn’t say closed. Banking everything on it being open we started walking at 7 pm. When we finally saw those lights and walked in that door, it was great. We had a three hour dinner, massive with two liters of wine and amazing foods ending with Amaro for all. Wow, it’s so good to be here. And it wasn’t raining anymore for the walk home. What a day!

Tomorrow’s ride will be more epic, can’t wait!