Spoleto to Todi

Apologies for falling another day behind, but the less-than-ideal connectivity has been especially challenging in the last couple of days. (Right now, I’m sitting in a chair in the hall outside our room in Orvieto, because that’s the only way I can get the best out of our hotel’s wifi. 🙄)

The ride to Todi was a longer one, over 36 miles with 3200+ feet of elevation gain. Some of the hills were really steep (again!), leaving us huffing and puffing in the heat (over 90º again!). More pictures…

Another tree-lined road, topped by clear blue skies
Yet another tree-lined road, topped by clear blue skies!
Big patches of ginestra lining the road
Big patches of ginestra (aka ‘broom’) lined this climb. It smells amazing.
Huge field of grain with cloud-studded sky in the background
I loved the contrasting colors in the this vista

Grove of pine trees

Interesting grove of pine trees
A view of Todi in the distance
Approaching Todi (below the last big climb, of course)

I should mention the scare we had just past that carefully laid-out grove of pine trees above. I think I’ve mentioned how bad the roads are in many places here, and on this particular stretch the transition from the macadam to the weeds, wildflowers and grasses next to the road was full of loose sandy gravel. Unfortunately, there was also a fair bit of traffic at that point as well, and Mallory, attempting to stay far right while a car passed, skidded in the gravel and crashed into the brush at the side of the road. Fortunately, she wasn’t going very fast, so she wasn’t hurt. She did scrape her elbow, and more concerning, said she landed in the grass on the top of her head. Again, we’re so lucky she wasn’t hurt worse, and thank goodness for helmets!

After we arrived in Todi and got situated in our little B&B, we explored the town a bit…

Ancient door above even older stairs?
Ancient door above even older stairs?
The oldest ‘porta’ (gate) in the town
The oldest ‘porta’ (gate) in town, partially dating to Etruscan times
View of the church tower from below
The church tower from below
View of the town from the top of the church tower
…and a view of the town from the top of the tower!
The interior of the church tower, looking up from the bottom

The interior of the church tower, looking up from the bottom

Detail of carving of church columns
Detail of some of the astounding carvings in the church columns

We then found a wonderful little restaurant for dinner, with a gorgeous outdoor patio. These are literally pictures taken from our table…

The view from our dinner table
This is why they call it the “golden hour”
Swallows flocking at sunset
A murmuration of swallows too!
The full moon rising over the sunset view
…and to top it all off, the full moon! Bellisimo!!

Spoleto, day two

Our second day in Spoleto meant a loop ride was in our future. In this case it was a lovely 18½ mile ride, with about 1600 feet of elevation gain. The ride exited Spoleto to the NE, and wound into a valley lined with olive groves & thick wooded hillsides. Check out the photos…

More gorgeous tree-lined back roads
More gorgeous tree-lined back roads
The view begins to open up
The view begins to open up, giving us glimpses of the climb to come
Steep olive tree-lined hillside
That must’ve been a bit of work to plant, eh?
Sky above olive groves above red poppies
Blue sky over soft-green olive groves above red poppies
The view back down the valley as we near the top of our climb
The view back down the valley as we near the top of the climb
Incredible view of the valley from the top
The valley below. (Can you see the red poppies in the distance?)

Ancient buildings above field of grain

I love the number of greens in this image

After the relatively short ride, we decided to explore Spoleto a bit more. We learned that there’s quite a lot of ancient Roman history to be found there. Among the sites we visited were the archeological museum and a well-preserved Roman dwelling beneath the Town Hall, that’s famous for its amazing mosaic floors…

Statuary that was brought from Rome to decorate the local “teatro”

Statuary that was brought in from Rome to decorate the local “teatro”
The Roman Teatro in Spoleto
Spoleto’s Roman Teatro

Portion of an old Roman tablet

They had trouble fitting all the letters into their tablets even then!
Spoleto’s Town Hall
We came around a corner, and there it was, Town Hall!
Roman mosaics
My favorite combo of patterns

Roman mosaics

Another mosaic pattern
Roman mosaics
Another beautiful pattern
Roman mosaics
How’s that for a wild combo of patterns??

We felt very accomplished at the end of the day yesterday, having gotten in a nice ride, as well as experienced quite a bit of history of the town. We could get used to this lifestyle! 😁

Bevagna to Spoleto

The big news about yesterday’s ride was that the temp was forecast to rise to near 100º! Knowing that, we attempted to get an early start (for us anyway), and we also chose a relatively short 25 mile ride that took us through the lovely town of Trevi. That, of course, involved a pretty decent 1300+ foot climb. On to the photos…

Cypress amid green fields
I just love all the cypress trees!
Riding down the bike path
Mallory leading the charge down the bike path

A highlight of the tour this year that I’ve forgotten to mention is that we’ve been lucky enough to ride quite a few miles on peaceful little bike paths that follow large irrigation canals in much of this part of Italy. It’s a huge improvement over the traffic-laden roads we’ve been on near many of the bigger cities. Those roads are also often in a pretty awful state of disrepair as well, making it hard to navigate and not get run over!

Idyllic tree-lined bike path
How idyllic, eh?
Approaching the climb to Trevi
Trevi looming in the distance

We stopped in Trevi for a refreshment, and the find some relief from the heat..

Old fortrezza tower in the middle of Trevi
Trevi town center
Flowers, flowers and more flowers!
Flowers, flowers and more flowers!
Screenshot of my riding app’s elevation profile as we left Trevi
I just had to share this screenshot of our elevation graph as we left Trevi

After our (super sweaty) arrival in Spoleto, showered and (mostly) re-hydrated, we walked into the newer part of town to do some laundry and have what’s become our requisite afternoon gelato. Here are a few shots from that hike…

Safety barricades for this weekend’s ‘soap-box derby’-style races
Safety barricades? More on this later…
Pretty white flowers against old stone wall
Pretty white flowers against old stone wall
Very old clock-fountain?
Not sure what this clock-fountain structure is all about…

Stay tuned for the story of our second day in Spoleto tomorrow!