What have the Romans ever done for us? Well, apart from the aquaduct, a piece of more recent handiwork is shown on the photo of the van door handle! However, they’ve actually made it harder to open, so we’ve decided to leave it be until at least after Naples! After a restless night (thus the nocturnal shot of the Colisseum) there were tearful farewells as Dave and Charlie got in a taxi with Emerson Fittipaldi to be whisked to the airport. Bernard meanwhile went for a haircut and came back looking like the most wanted man in Italy! After fixing a flat back tyre it was off again on a slightly cloudier and cooler day (about 30ish!!). We worked our way towards the Ancient Via Appia and the southern gate to Rome, but were dismayed to find that the former still consists of Roman setts!! After a bone-jarring couple of km we found an alternative, tarmacked route which, due to the state of modern Roman roads, led to a further several tens of bone-jarring kms!!!
We were quickly out of the city – there are no suburbs as such to the south, but there is a tatty, industrial belt that meant lots of big lorries and, bizarrely, prostitutes stationed at regular intervals along the road, often flashing their wares! As the lorries receded so did the working girls, and road surfaces improved as we made good time to meet the van at Cisterna di Latina after just over 30 miles.
After a quick snack Pat and George joined Tizz, Bernard and I to ride another 30 miles in a dead straight line along the main Via Appia. It is truly spectacular; tree-lined and shaded, with mountains to the left and vineyards and fields and a canal stretching to the left. It was easy to imagine collonades of soldiers marching up and down. The traffic was extremely considerate to us in bikes, generally hooting a warning as they approached from behind.
I’d looked up our accommodation on Google and the red pin had showed it near to a village just outside Terracina. We duly made it in good time only to find no sign of it. The van had got lost too, so we asked a local wan for directions, which she gave us in strident Italian several times over. None the wiser, we rode round the corner to find Jo and the van surrounded by Italian men also giving directions. We stopped again, only for the woman to reappear on her scooter and start shouting at the men and us that it was all wrong and that she’d already sorted it! There followed a cacophony of raised Italian voices, the upshot being that Villa Eleila is nowhere near where it’s shown on Google Earth!! Two hours and several miles later we’re finally here, after another 70-mile plus but steady day, and it’s delightful, a charming B&B just outside Terracina. Naples tomorrow and a meet up with Martin “Stealth” Hawkins!!