Starting point: Rome, Italy
I arrived in Rome on Thursday Mid-day, giving myself a little time to turnaround my internal clock and to do a little sightseeing before jumping on a bike. First things first, SHOWER, change clothes and head out for some sights and a Roman dinner. I wandered the city for a bit. Found myself at a part deli/bakery/wine bar/restaurant called Roscioli. If you plan to go to Rome make sure to make reservations here!! I was super lucky as I didn’t have a reservation but was seated within 15 minutes. The place was packed the entire time I was there. So happy that I had a stroke of just plain ol’ good luck.
With my appetizer, I caught myself grunting and moaning a little bit. Not quite loud enough for anyone to hear but loud enough that I could have done a voice over for a porno flick had the noises I was making been slightly amplified, this was good! Not just because of airplane food and airport snacks in the last 24 hours. This is sublime. The meats and cheeses freshly cut. Caciao e pepe = perfection and the stewed beef with pickled vegetables for the main course was nothing short of out of this world. The wine list is quite impressive here too over 2,500. After dinner and grapa it was time to head back to the hotel to put in a full night’s rest while making up for the not so wonderful sleep I got on the plane.
Friday!
Time to be a tourist. I have been to Rome a few times but never made it the the Pantheon so, it’s the first place on my to-do list.
Pantheon, check!
Trevi fountain, Spanish steps, Vatican, Castel Sant Angelo Check-check-check and check!
Lunch? More of that Caciao de pepe, this time in the Trastevere district. I was told by my B&B host that only TRUE Romans are born here. Yes!! Once again a total score on the “adult Mac-N-Cheese”. This stuff is good!
Ok, I’ve logged about 13,000 steps and it’s just after noon.
Visit a few cathedrals then a few parts of Rome that were excavated and the ruins remain. Over to the Wedding cake then a few of the famous squares around town. More cathedrals, more squares, Oh My! As the day was coming to an end, I went back over to the Pantheon for a few night shots and had pizza for dinner. After snapping a few pics it was time to grab a taxi back to my B&B just outside of Vatican City and call it a night.
Once I was dropped off by my taxi, I grabbed a beer to take to my room.
At the end of the day I had walked 10.5 miles with 26,500 steps. Thank you Doc Marten for comfortable loafers!
Saturday
Saturday I slept in and took a leisurely approach for the day. I changed hotels today, this one closer to the outskirts of town. I went out for lunch mid day and picked up a few souvenirs for everyone back to the hotel to wait for the bike.
The bike was dropped off by the rental agency on Saturday afternoon. The guy from agency came to my hotel and we filled out some paperwork, then the key was handed off. I held my composure and didn’t initially run out to the bike as I didn’t want the guy I was renting the bike from to see me drooling or anything. Lucky enough, a tour bus was going to arrive at the hotel in a few minutes. The receptionist asked us if we could move the bike so the bus could park. I did not act like a giddy school girl as we went out to give the bike a once over and show me the steering lock, how to change the ride modes, where the rotor lock was, how to remove and replace the side bags. I went ahead and removed the side bags to bring to my room to pack for the week long ride I was about to embark on. What bike you are wondering? I went with the old adage….”When in Rome” and rented an Italian bike…More specifically, a Ducati Multistrada 1200. So, she’s now my girlfriend for the week..
After dinner at what seemed to be a locals only place where I had the “must mention” fried artichoke and carbonara with ham. I wanted to visit the coliseum at night for a few shots.
Day 1
Set off from Rome early on Sunday morning to beat out the traffic. I began to familiarize myself with the bike as I was traveling along the ancient Appian Way. At some point, I hopped off of the Appian Way to follow a more scenic route that took me to my first stop of the day, Lago Albano.
Here I learned that the lake in front of me was created after the volcano I was standing on erupted and later filled in with water. It was still early in the day however, after spotting a porchetta food truck, it was time to grab a sandwich wrap it up, save it for lunch and head on my way. Along my path, I went through a few nice little quiet towns that offered some beautiful scenery. Cori, Norma, Sermoneta to name a few.
Below is the Pontine islands. Look up the legend of Circe
I was headed towards the outskirts of Latina to visit an open-air World War II museum called Piana delle Orme. I made it just in time for lunch. Remember that Porchetta sandwich? Yeah it was just amazing. The bread was much like a baguette, crusty flaky outside and soft and fluffy inside. The bonus is that the meat and bread had traded flavors over the last couple of hours. This to go along with crispy pork skin, delicately roasted pork with just the right amount of fat (yes, I am drooling just typing this ride report and there are no food porn pics). After lunch, I headed into the museum. The attendant at the ticket office was nice enough to hold my helmet and jacket in the ticket office so I didn’t have to lug it around. There were enough restored vehicles here to start a small war!
At the top of the diorama is the depiction of the battle of Monte Cassino (we will talk about this later). There was building after building stuffed to the max with diorama’s depicting different parts of the war. The absolute coolest thing at the museum was a Sherman tank with a “DD” designation. (Duplex Drive). It was supposed to be a floating tank. However, 27 of the 29 tanks sank before reaching the beaches of Normandy. This was one of the 27.
From the museum it was time to head to the coast! Sperlonga was in my sights.
After joining back up with the coast, I followed it down around Naples and over to Vico Equense where I finished up day 1. Time for pizza and beer!
Day 2
From Vico Equense, a scenic run was made up to Villaggio Monte Fatio for a spectacular view of Vesuvius and Capri’s islands. It felt like standing on top of the world.
Following the mountain roads down to Sorrento and then over Massa Lubrense I headed south. After a stop for a quick lunch in Sirenuse, pasta with zucchini in a pecorino sauce while on a pier overlooking the ocean. Ok, I’ve talked enough about food!
Here is a food porn pic…
It was time to hookup with Almalfi Drive The coastline was awe-inspiring. Making brief stops in Positano, Conca Dei Marni for what seemed to be an unlimited supply of breathtaking photos.
Then over to the town of Amalfi itself, once there it was time for a gelato. My pick, Nutella and peanut butter and let me tell you it was to die for! After wandering around town a bit it was time to get on the move again.
I took a turn inland to ride a loop on some small back roads that went through Ravello, Sambuco, Pietre, Camponola and Novella bringing me to my evening destination of Maiori.
My hotel room had a view that was suitable for a Hollywood film.
Day 3
Leave Maiori ride to the end of Amalfi drive and ride over to Salerno and keep going south along the coast with a lunch stop in Paestum to see the Greek temples.
Man, the history lesson to be learned here!
From 500BC to the rediscovery, through World War 2 and up to present date. There is so much to see here. The tomb of the diver along with the other painted tombs in the museum are worth the stop let alone the temples and ruins that are there. The temples are incredibly well preserved for their age. Even better, in World War two they were considered off limits to bombings for both the Axis and Allies.
After lunch and an espresso it was time to head back to the coast and follow it from Palinuro to Maratea.
Maratea was my stop for the evening. Since I was there before tourist season most of the shops/ trattorias were closed. I found a small grocery store and assembled myself a simple dinner (bread/sliced meats/cheeses/bottle of wine - from the Bastilicata region, of course).
So, back to my room to write down all of the places I have been. It’s getting hard to separate all if the things I am taking in. After dinner it was time to relax a little and catch up on a couple of Netflix shows.
Day 4
After a quick croissant and cappuccino for breakfast, I rode up to the Statua del Cristo Redentore.
Last night’s B&B was waaay down there.
I could see the statue from my hotel room when I arrived the afternoon before. It looked quite a bit smaller from the city. Well worth the ride up and the climb up the steps to get to the statue. The reward was a 360° view of the city. Yet another place I wanted to spend more time. The air was so crisp and clean; the sky was so blue.
I headed back down the mountain and then turned inland across the mountains of Basilicata. Remember last night’s bottle of wine? Pretty sure I rode by the vineyard that it came from. I made a few stops along the way. First stop was for lunch and to explore the small village of Corleto Perticara where I had a pizza Diavola that was out of this world good.
As I was leaving Corleto Perticara I noticed the exhaust from the bike echoing off of the buildings on the narrow streets. Sorta sounded like an angry dragon. Lay on the throttle a bit and it reverberated thought the three level buildings liken to the sound you’d imagine after stepping on a Wookiee’s foot.
Ooohhh, LOOK! An aqueduct!
This got the little gears inside my head turning for a while. I was thinking, I am a long way from Rome and this supplied water to it. I wonder how much elevation it drops in X amount of feet. How old are the aqueducts? Yes, you guessed it at my next fill up I Goggled and read the marvels of the aqueducts. My question that kept that little squirrel running in the wheel in my head’s answer was anywhere from 1 foot drop per 150 feet to 1 foot drop over 500 feet. Now, I fumble with math and I have more technology in my pocket with my iPhone than we had in total when we went to the moon and the Romans figured this out in like 300BC.
Continuing along my ride, my next stop is Craco at the ghost town. It started to become a ghost town in the 1960’s after a landslide that was caused by the infrastructure, water and sewer systems. In 1972 a flood made the situation worse and in 1980 an earthquake sealed the city fate and it was completely abandoned.
I made it to the Small Dolomites of Lucania. Still bits of snow on the ground here but the roads were mostly clean.
Riding through the national forest in Cirigliano, where it was very desolate and I didn’t see another vehicle for hours, I began to wonder….Is this where the mobsters “make people disappear”?
Good thing I was in the middle of nowhere as one of those occasions arose. Hopped off of the bike and went a few meters or so off of the roadside to relieve myself. I hear a scurrying sound in the background and I think to myself, If I see a pudgy Italian guy with gold chains and a leather jacket or even worse…hear a banjo……. Not sure what was in the woods but I hurried back to the bike and fired it up and ripped the throttle and scurried along the way myself.
Once out of the forest and not meeting a Tony Soprano look-a-like I was more than happy to join civilization again.
My stop for the night, Matera
What an awesome place. You want history? This is where the Sassi people (worth the Google “Sassi people of Matera”) are believed to have made themselves home around 9000 years ago. They are among/if not the first settlers in Italy. The town is a UNESCO heritage site. The cave dwellings are what the town is built on top of. Trivia fact: 70% of the city can’t be seen because it either underground or tucked in caves.
I had a lot of fun here and really wished I had stayed another night. Pizza and beer again for dinner with no complaints about that either. The pizzeria I went to for dinner was under the city and went three levels deep into the earth. Yeah, no posting to instagram in there.
Day 5
Head over to the Park of the Rupestrain Churches for a hilltop view of Matera on my way out of the city.
From the hilltop, ride to Alberobello, the town of the cone shaped houses known as Trulli, and from there head for the coast to the town of Polignano a Mare for lunch.
Grabbed a panzarotti and a peach tea for lunch and walked over to the beach for photos and to eat. I took a little stroll in the city center after lunch for a gelato and a cappuccino.
After getting out of the city and back on the road, I began to feel like I was in Chernobyl or something. I didn’t see another vehicle on this entire road, maybe 150 kilometers?
My afternoon itinerary took me across to the Murgia region to visit the octagonal castle of Castel del Monte.
Day 6
It’s Good Friday of Holy week. I had about an hour delay this morning. There was a holy week procession that shut down the square where I was parked. I watched and listened to it go from Church to church to church.
Once the square was opened I got on the bike in an attempt to get back on the road only to get caught up in the path of the procession again. Shut down the bike, waited for it again and then it was time to go.
Today’s plan: Ride north along the Adriatic coast and explore the spur of Italy's boot, the Gargano peninsula.
The roads here are amazing, incredible coastlines and an ancient forest, called the Foresta Umbra (umbra = dark). The forest was a lot of fun but with the snow storm a few weeks earlier there were a lot of downed trees and broken branches covering much of the roads. I had to exercise a bit of caution through most of the forest.
Lunch in Apulia was the only lackluster meal I had since I arrived in Italy. Maybe it was due to the fact that I had my mind set on some sort of portable street food or a simple bite of pizza. However, I ended up in a pizzeria / restaurant that only served pizza for dinner. I did learn that places that only make pizza for dinner lets the dough rise all day (thus making a better pizza). I settled on grilled chicken for lunch. After having lunch, I walked down the main strip along the beach.
I then climbed back on top of my chariot and headed to my final destination for tonight in Termoli, the small region of Italy that many Italians probably couldn’t point out on a map if you asked them to. Upon arrival, I found my hotel in the center of the old town. The city center is restricted to traffic (Unless you live or will stay in a hotel there).
When checking in you give your tag number to the B&B/hotel and they in turn make sure that the cameras that recorded you upon entry do not mail you a ticket for driving around in the old town.
Day 7
As much as I hated to admit the trip was winding down, it was time to head back to Rome. My route takes me across Molise and southern Lazio with one last stop in historic Casino. Quick flashback to day 1: When I visited the WWII museum there was a complete diorama on the bombing of Monte Casino that caught my interest enough to visit the abbey today. Only setback is weather does not look promising today.
Light drizzle began a few hours into the ride. Change into rain gear when filling up the bike and continue along my way. Lunch was timed perfectly to grab a bite in the busy city of Casino. There were a few bouts of rain but it was only a mist/sprinkle by the end of lunch.
After Lunch, I rode up to the Abbey and took a self guided tour. The battle of Casino is another Google worthy search. It was absolutely leveled during the war.
Once my tour was done I pointed myself towards Rome. The rain gods decided to throw it all at me on the final stint of the ride and my GPS though it would be fun to join in on the shenanigans. I made it to what I called “Goat path Lane”, looked at the GPS, back at the dirt road that hat turned into knee-high brush, back to the GPS and said….No!
Turned around and backtracked and made a new route. The last two hours of the ride was on the Autostrada. This is where the torrential downpour happened followed by pea sized hail. It felt like getting pelted with paint balls. This is when I pulled over and waited for the hail to stop. 20 minutes later, I’m on my way. Off and on rain to the outskirts of Rome, I made it to my exit on the Autostrada, paid my toll then ventured into the city. Did I mention I didn’t miss this chaos? The city of Rome is both exciting and terrifying to ride in. The road to my hotel was rough cobblestone that could jar the fillings out of your teeth. Luckily it was only a few Km on the rough wet surface.
Once to the hotel, it felt like the last date with the girlfriend. I hurried in to unload the bike so I could get it back to the rental garage before they closed. Once emptied, it was less than a kilometer to the garage. Once I dropped it off and walked away, it then felt like my girlfriend dumped me on prom night.
I grabbed a taxi and headed to the city to take some photos and say arrivederci.
