D 42 Palestrina to Ceccano

I promise to be brief today! At least I'm not attempting to summarise 2500 years of cultural history! The road from Pallestrina to Fuigi (SR155) is fab - little traffic, not too hilly and scenic in the extreme.

After a light lunch in Fuigi (supplier of water to the royal families of Europe and now a quiet spa dreaming of better times I took in two of the lower and very numerous historic hill towns dotting this underrated area. Ferentino was quiet with dramatic views and old men reluctant to.Talk about the battle for Monte Casino just down the valley where my Dads mate Led fought, a fact that was mentioned in terms of high respect. Looking it up.on WIKI I learn that the commanding 15th century Franciscan monastery was in fact not a German stronghold when it was destroyed by American bombing as the Allies fought their way up the peninsula.  It was only after the bombing that the Panzer divisions dug into the ruins to great effect making it an extremely costly assault for the Allies to clear the approach for Rome.  Gungho American bombing - sounds all too familiar! the onset of crepuscular twilight  found me at the unfashionable Ceccano having taken some time to negotiate laboriously a quiet and largely rural route past the populous modern agglomeration of Frosinone. As is so often the case in this Montainesque life a lovely evening ensued chatting with an anthropologis , her brother and Irish boyfriend just back from the beach at Bar I and then a lovely family running a Trattoria who had finished serving and were Sat eating their dinner rustled up a dinner including a memorable primi of buffalos mozzarella. I went to sleep replete in my €40 hotel room wondering what I had done to deserve such a dolce vita!

D41 Rome to Palestrina

Well finally tore myself away from the endless fascinating distractions of the eternal city having educated myself on the interrelationships between Greeks, Etruscans and Romans (with a brief discussion into the Egyptians) for good measure. No better place to understand the layer upon layer of cultural appropriation reinterpretation and repackaging that us humans have been doing once we had learned enough to generate surplus production around 8000 years ago on the fringes of the Eastern Mediterranean. The seven villages that came together as Rome learnt much from the Etruscans to their North and the Greek Colonies to the South. But it was Julius Caesar's nephew Octavian once he had seen off Mark Anthony (and republicanism) at the sea battle of Actium significantly off the Greek coast who consciously cloaked himself in all things Greek to legitimise his imperial regime including a temple to his protecting God Apollo on the Palatine.

However it was the Vatican where I discovered the evidence of transmission into the modern era as pope after pope commissioned renaissance giants to decorate their palaces using the surrounding statues of antiquity as their models. I  was feeling somewhat chastened during evening tai chi at 60 years of age on my clinical retirement 'grand tour's by the fact that Michaelangelo started work on the dome of St Peter's at 74 years of age! Maybe my own masterpiece lies ahead!

The route onwards towards Bari presented somewhat of a dilemma! The old Roman route the via Appia clearly presented the most authentic option heading through what used to be swampy ground South towards Naples before swinging East and has a modern route documented the via appia antica but seemed sketchy at best after the first notable 20km through a protected linear Appian park to the Roma ringroad. I downloaded what purported to be a  GPX file for my Garmin and set out but not before downloading a more detailed reconnaissance route map for Eurovelo 5 which seeks to cover much the same journey but choosing a more cycle friendly route heading eastwards of the via Appi a bit with no equivalent solution for getting out of the city.

For anyone who stumbles upon this blog looking for a scenic route out of Rome I would highly recommend my solution (if you don't mind a wee climb (300m or so). Take the Via Appi a Heading South from the circus maximus and give yourself a long morning to admire the many sites that line the path and hear those  legionnaires, pellegrinos, slaves and maybe the odd tourist like us marching alongside along the millenia. Cycling on the Roman pacing is ok once you follow the  worn ruts of 2 000 years of cartwheels! On reaching the end of the park at Frattoche where the modern dual carriageway takes the logical straight path up to Castel Gondolfo in the Albani Hills zig zag on the much quieter and more gentle approach via Pavona. If like me you then decide that the via appia antica is not for you there is a wonderful ride contouring through the Albany Hills past the popes' weekend place overlooking the spectacular crater lake of Lago di Albani via Frascati and a stop for refreshments! The best glass of white i have enjoyed since Burgundy!

The run into Palestrina is a little circuitous to avoid major   roads but rewards with a dramatic hilltop town on the other side of the Sacco valley which houses a massive classical terraced shrine to Fortune (the resident female adept free lots as she foretold what lay ahead!), Taken in by the Barberrini family (massively successful papal hangers on)  as a Palazzo on which all terraced grand house p.s. Have subsequently been modelled and where Thomas Mann and hisbrother hung out and wrote. Layer upon layer as I said before!

D40 Campagnano to ROME

After a lovely evening orchestrated by the outgoing Bruno putting together a mixed table of 12 pellegrinos (most of those in town that night I would guess) Italian, Swiss, American, Australian plus me the token Brit I cycled over to Formello and realised what a good decision has been made the previous evening. The lovely Nina proudly showed me the Palazzo library (closed) museum (closed) and the Hostel (closed). Over a picnic lunch in a wooded copse pictured below outside the town I mused on this difference in culture - imagine a Cotswold tourist spot closing up for a holiday week in August so everybody can be with their families. It's the way it used to be up north - once you accept that it's good for families to get together for a week in the summer then a general close down makes perfect sense.
The afternoon took me down into the Tiber valley through surprisingly lovely countryside only 30km North of the city. Then suddenly you're in it and I was absolutely delighted to realise the lovely people who have cyclified the Via Francigena get you over onto a  pukka Tiber cycle way with a minimum of fuss and there I was cruising into the eternal city. Not only that but the riverside path is called the Way of the Resistance in celebration of the role of Women in opposing fascism often organising on their bikes. Right on...I 'm very pleased to be here!

D39 Sutri to Campagnano di Roma

Sutri did not disappoint. I had a perfect basement room right in the heart of the old town perched on a hill bisected by the Via Francigena. Built on a Tufa outcrop which the Etruscans had carved into then further embellished over the next 2500 years it's a little treasure trove. The close up of the medieval gate shows it is based on the original Roman stonework whilst the amphitheatre fashioned out of the Tufa outcrop has some features suggesting Etruscan origins. As you can see I even had a half hour for cycle maintenance outside my room rented out by a delightful family (the daughter is a med student in Rome) who plied me with fruit from their garden for the journey - the sweetest red fleshed little peaches I have ever tasted.

The route took me through a national park with waterfalls that day so I was geared up for a river swim and picnic. An route I encountered two guys harvesting figs (Albanian and Cape Verde.....As in Greece UK and presumably all of Europe field work isn't done by locals!)....who plied me with yet more fruit!

Italians are funny at beauty spots - instead of swimming in the beautiful cool mountain water they spend their time posing for highly contrived photos (girls pushingg out bosoms and guys sucking in tummies) so possibly in protest I don't have a photo from the stop which ended with a light drizzle which triggered a frenzied mass exodus of the horses in their cars fortunately in the opposite direction . After taking my leave of another pellegrino with whom I had enjoyed a couple of chats (one of the fast solo walking  males who catch up the indolent cyclist much to the corners delight and my slight embarassment!) I got going again ahead of the afternoon storm. my intended destination Formello was described to have a pilgrim  hostel in a renaissance palazzo at which I was unsurprisingly kean to stay but now getting wise to the slightly random nature of the hostel organisation i had been calling ahead with no answer. So when I emerged into the preceding town Campagnano  di Roma found it to be almost intimidating medieval (all grey stone amidst the darkening skies) I was in a bit of a quandary whether to stop or push on. Being a bar stopper that resolved the matter when fellow pellegrino Bruno and his son invited me to join their  table and a rather funny half hour ensued with Bruno (Italian Swiss via Montreal!) kindly interrogating locals about a place to stay for me which was resolved  (as always?) By booking.com producing a local apoartment in the perfect location round the corner with a lovely landlady who came down to the bar to collect me!

D38 Bolsena to Sutri

After my 120km leg with James (who was pushing on having ridden from Canterbury on a rather Heath Robinson adapted bike and was clearly a little ride weary) I again applied my 'piano Miami's principle (slowly slowly in Italian charmingly aching one of my favourite Greek phrases and a new philosophy for my third age siga siga) I had a lovely day at the lake swimming and reading (finally getting into my kindle -Homers the Iliad and the Odyssey).

The next day, refreshed and revitalised I made Montefiascone for morning coffee, a superb hill top town important stopping point in the Via Francigena. One of the many churches is especially significant architecturally as combining Carolingian and Romanesque elements (see my earlier entry from the Loire on Carolingian architecture above). I also found proof on a room painting on the wall of the transfer of ideas up and down the Via Franciscan in the medieval war with another version of the three rich kids meeting death story described when I diary encountered it in central France North of Orleans.

And finally of interest in the church here is the tomb of the Defuk, a nobleman travelling with the Holy Roman Emporor Henry V in 1111 on the Via Franciscan who sent his servant ahead to test the wine and write EST on the gate if it was any good so he could stop with certainty of good booze! Montefascione earned a triple EST,EST, Est and it is said Defuc drank himself to death here....with the epitaph on his grave 'because of too much  EST ES T EST here lies my lord'....fortunately this correspondent had stopped early in the day here and had plenty more miles to do so (on this occasion) was not led astray unlike Defuk.

The afternoon ride looked promising with a volcanic spa bath opportunity ahead so it was particularly delightful to fall in with Camilla, one of the few line cyclists I came across, also headed in the same direction. She turned out to be an astrophysics student needing some space on the pellegrino road to decide her future and we enjoyed a couple of hours over lunch working through the six hot spa 'puddles' charmingly mislabeled on the signage....just the thing for tired cyclists - we even got free entry as pellegrinos.

The afternoon catch up session (time slipped away lazing on those volcanic pools) had me riding like crazy with a now expected late afternoon storm sending thunder and lightning but thankfully little rain all around me - exhilarating as I raced over the hills to Sutri (with a false summit at a little town which I didn't have time to explore called Capranica. Indeed in retrospect I have now learnt I was crossing the epicenter of the Etruscan area occupying the land between the Arne and the Tiber and could usefully revisit Vetralla which was rushed through. But anyhow I was pleased to reach Sutri and determined to enjoy a morning exploring it further.

D37 Sienna to Lago do Bolsena

Siena  it turned out was building up for the Palio the twice annual horse race around the main square. I must see the training ride I was told the following day and having planned two nights in Siena I followed the advice of the really nice people at the Palazzo. The walk into this medieval hill town convinced me immediately that there was a buzz about the place and by th e evening training race I was determined to stay for the real thing. Here are a few images from Siena Palio in which my neighbourhood (the quarter of the owl) horse is shown after his church blessing but before the race, then we see the procession of all the neighbourhoods to be blessed in the cathedral and finally the full square (c 30 k people) awaiting race (televised live on national TV) on which bragging rights for years are settled amidst an atmosphere that makes the Merseyside derby feel tame and millions are bet on a race that certainly isn't run under English Jockey Club regulations. This winner feined an inability to join the starting line up, held up the whole show for 15 mins with interminable failed starts....Then got the start he'd planned a couple of metres behind the others this allowing him to find the gap  before the first corner, sneaked thro and then on the three laps which are lightening quick there was no catching him. The square exploded in uproar as the victorious neighbourhood snatched the Madonna of the race and charged out to party in their neighbourhood! Fantastic - I was introduced to t spritzers that night -prosecco, Aperol and a drop of tonic water - delicious. I was also told by Italian paratrooper s (the threat to mass events is taken very seriously and managed very efficiently by the Italian military everywhere I have been) that I was on a soul journey! I liked that.

Onwards that day on a beautiful Siennese rolling tuscan route that has me imagining in my head I and Hermes were crossing a Botticelli! Took my first tumble on a strada bianchi which can be treacherous on the down if there 's too much loose stuff on which to skid. Quite technical riding and I'm still learning - only grazes and soon enjoying it again on the flat anyway!

Came around a corner to meet Carol tending his horses and suggesting a route variant (views are better) on the ridge he walks his horses....our discussion ranged over the Palio, Greece the poetry of Chilean port Pablo needs set to a Greek musician 's accompaniment - Carols Belgian heritage, the local hunters and their dislike of people like us wandering disturbing their animals which they want to kill! In other words the sort of wayside chat one would wish for when dreaming of going on pilgrimage! This view looks back over Carols land (Cyprus avenues to die for) and the other North towards sienna.

I emerged from Carol's horse route into a lovely medieval little town called Buonconvento with its own own museo-art gallery and a nice atmosphere where I bought some supplies and then started out in the heat of the noon day sun as I couldn't justify hanging around a cafe with a picnic in my bag. As I set out I realised the Via Francigena was going to take me on a circuitous and hilly Strada bianchi which was going to be hard work ....my morning's session had taught me that whilst great to ride on the flat going uphill is twice as onerous whilst coming down is no fun so twice the pain with out much gain - it was the Sr2 for me - a blacktop regional route which follow the Via  Cassia one of the principal North-South Roman roads. And because most traffic takes the autostradas and it's August when all the Romans are at the  Med it was blissfully quiet.

I was pleased with my decision as the scale of the rolling landscape grew as we approached the volcanic country of the Val d'Orcia. Up a hard I started getting glimpses of another solo bike rider -unusual especially in the heat of the day. When I did feel him in it was of course a fellow Englishman James from Dulwich, we laughed as we quoted to each other 'only maddogs and Englishman to put in the noon day sun'. We teamed up and had a great afternoon with a succession of climbs building to the final ridge overlooking the sizeable volcanic lake of Lago De Bolsena. There we found a Gnocchi festival complete with the Madonna of the Gnocchi so that sorted dinner and we were glad of my lights as we crushed down the hill well after dark down to the lake and found somewhere to camp.

D36 San Miniato to Siena

I awoke to the first morning rain of the trip! The cloud was down and one could have been in Northern England for a few mins until that SouthernSun started working its magic and the most lifted a little to actually accentuate the beauty of Tuscany.

The route was hillier than anticipated but they don't go on too long ( rather devonlike) and the views more than compensate. I enjoyed watching dogs work sheep across a tuscan landcape with yellows from the sunflowers somehow radiating a yellow sheen to the sheep which were visible mainly through their swirling movement.

Lunch stop was San Giminnano still over run by tourists and probably best at a distance (seen below from one of the many strade bianchi (gravel roads more prosaically) which I rode and will be riding on the way to Rome (about 40% according to the VF literature).

 

Nevertheless I will always remember my white bean and boar stew dish which I tucked into after a strenuous morning! Having studied the map I decided Siena was doable and pushed on. A lovely 15 kms of railway route were an unexpected bonus. An exceptional off road section through woodland took me past both a medieval castle (apparently perfectly preserved from a distance) and an Etruscan Megalith neither of which I could stop for as the rain  was returning and there was thunder above so it was a push for Siena enormously encouraged by this info board with the castello behind.

The evening session was hard as the road wound up to the two  ridges on which Sienna sits. Booking .com had come up with a fab Palazzo just south of the city and my sat nav sent me round the main road SS2 which swings round the city. If I had been more clear thinking and less tired I probably should have cut through the city but that's easy in retrospect . Anyway on reflection over an arrival beer I reckoned the day amounted to a str­ong bid for the coveted yellow jersey on­ general classification. Having hung on ­in there in the mountains I got to a cru­ising speed of 25km/HR on the flat on th­e stony non tarmacced trails which I'll ­be riding for half the time now down to ­Rome. Well chuffed. Then to round off a ­full day I was having to contend with so­me traffic in the approach into Sienna i­n a thunderstorm so I was doing my defen­sive riding style taking centre of the l­ane in a busy underpass when to be fair ­in the first piece of bad Italian drivin­g I've seen a guy in a fiat overtook me ­dangerously despite my v clear positioni­ng to prevent it _ I guess in his head b­ikes could never be allowed to be a car ­positionally. Anyway I snapped and put i­n a 100m sprint worthy of Cav on the up­side of the underpass, caught him and fl­icked him the v with a heartfelt cry of ­FU Tosser! Extra GC points for the exple­tive?

D35 Lucca to San Miniato

A huge step forward this morning thanks to Mario's loan of a pc and my learned dogged persistence when faced by unfamiliar software the net result of which was a fully loaded God files on my Garmin all the way to Rome. A navigational godsend and vital if taking off road variants.
Also picked up my Via Francigena credentials which with the appropriate stamps enable the pellegrino to access wayside hostels.

These examples of the biennial show a Costa Rican and English born artists' work respectively.both cardboard creations that I thought really worked and ricocheted off their surroundings in an interesting way.

And here are the all import and credentials - me a card carrying pilgrim at last. I did reflect that I have participated in four pilgrimages to date but this the fifth is my first Christian one! As an Italian paratrooper said to me you are on a soul journey which I thought put it perfectly.

Having used up the morning in Lucca I set out just as it began to rain on the walls but didn't let that distract from a lovely ride across the valley of the Arne downstream from Florence who of course were a superpower back.I'm the day and therefore best avoided on the pilgrim trail. Superb information boards do nothing to downplay the importance of the Via Francigena suggesting it's creation around the 10th century by the Lomn

Bards and it's maintenance through the early middle ages with associated hospice/hospital networks to aid the travellers was instrumental in creating a peaceable network allowing Tuscany hill towns to flourish - remember western Europe was coming over with wool and in pursuit of bank loans from the Lombardy bankers! It wasn't just monks on the road to Rome. However one prelate, English as it happens, wrote about it.In 990 AD, Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, travelled to Rome to meet Pope John XV and receive the investiture pallium. Along the way, he recorded the 79 stages of the journey in his diary. 

Nice to know I'm not the first and certainly won't the last. This route is now positively oozing history. This bridge across a swampy outlet known as the black arms was commissioned by Cosimo  Medici the famously power duo clan that ran Florence and therefore it's clear resemblance to the Ponte Vechio is no coincidence. I pass an info board.telling about LeonardLeonardoo da Vinci 's interest in the marine fossils to be found in the hills above the Arne causing him to speculate on a pre-existing geological marine phase....not for nothing labelled the last man to know everything that could be known!

I arrived in San  Miniato clearly visible well before from an impressively tall tower perched on a hill South of the Arne valley. What a prospect and as the my first attempt to stay in a pilgrim hostels was thwarted as it was full I used its facilities but camped on the hill above a cool little hill too bar run by the lovely Alissio and her boyfriend lamenting having left their great time in Stratford, London E17! That night the thunder and lightning to the North were impressive as I  bedded down as the last of the local hippies cleared the area.