We’re nearing the end of this incredible two-plus week tour, and we’re feeling it. 😊 The heat has been the main issue, combined with what I think must be relatively high humidity (compared to what we’re used to in Colorado at least). When you’re climbing a steep hill on a bicycle, it’s over 90º and there’s no breeze, it doesn’t take long to feel about as hot & sweaty as could be.
The ride from Todi was just over 28 miles, with the usual 3000+ feet of elevation gain. Thinking back on the past couple of weeks, it occurs to me that the consistent up-and-down-and-up-and-down nature of the rides was more pronounced in Italy that anywhere else we’ve toured on bikes. That, or we’re just feeling the 10 years older that we are since we started doing these tours? Whatever the case, I’ve talked over and over about having a big climb to our destination each day, but I haven’t mentioned that the beginning of each ride usually had a corresponding rapid descent, back to a neighboring valley. The ride to Todi had a nice big descent right off, immediately followed by a very steep, relatively short, climb that really took it out of both of us, for some reason. We had two big hills ahead of us, but I guess the blessing was that none of it was nearly as steep as that first kilometer or so. Needless to say, it felt really good to finally arrive at our hotel on Monday afternoon. Can’t forget the photos…
A little further on, we rode through the little village of Prodo…
Orvieto is a very unusual city, the old part anyway, as it sits entirely on top of a chunk of volcanic “tuffa”, averaging at least a hundred feet high. Check out the satellite view on Google maps, you can see the shadow of the rock along the northern edge!…
Isn’t that wild? Wait until you see it close up…
Orvieto also has one of the most incredible cathedrals in all of Italy, primarily because the Pope spent a lot of time here in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Check out a few images of it from the evening we arrived:
As we went to bed that night, we agreed that we’d take the last day off from riding, and instead take in the sights around the city, above and below the cliffs surrounding it, on foot.
