We found our way on to the SS18 and almost immediately started to climb. The gradient wasn’t too bad – big ring stuff – but as usual the limpet turned it into a race and we soon left Bernard and the struggling Martin behind. We seemed to climb into good weather as it brightened up a bit, but as the climb continued past the 5-mile mark we began to remember that we’re further south now and the days are shorter – dusk was falling! The scenery was wonderful but after a short descent and yet another prolonged climb it was clear that with nearly 20 miles still to do we were at risk of being benighted!! A fantastic descent down winding roads led to the main road at the bottom, which I had assumed we could join. However, it is a special “strada” and bikes aren’t allowed!! I wasn’t sure if the old SS18 carried on but it wasn’t possible to check as the battery on the iPhone was running low. The road did continue, but not in a straight line and certainly not on the flat!! It was by now really quite gloomy and car and town lights were on, local people enjoying their Saturday evening outside. Nice to see all ages out, socialising and chatting without a hint if trouble. After a stressed start to the day we were heading for a stressed end as only Tizz had any lights. At the next climb I decided to go for it and made a bid for Vallo before it became completely dark. Tizz kindly held back with Martin and then Bernard. After yet another interminable climb and short descent I entered what I thought was Vallo, only to find that I was in a village 4 miles short! Also no reception on phone and it was now completely dark! Brilliant! I took to doing short sprints uphill (it was all uphill – I’d naively thought “Vallo” meant “valley”!!) between cars – all very dodgy as it’s dangerous enough in the light!! I managed to ring Tizz who by now had grouped Bernard and Martin together and they said they’d wait at the village while I pushed on to Vallo and came back for them in the van. The last miles were fraught, dark and uphill but Jo and Deanne guided me to the hotel and it was luckily quite simple to find the way back out to pick up the others, who were by now immersed in some sort of village festival of light!! Back to the hotel to a friendly welcome, a meal at the restaurant next door (though no pasta on the menu, much to Tizz’s disgust!), and a collapse into bed. A fraught day which had seen over 93 miles covered, a variety of road surfaces and a contrast of scenery. Another long and hilly day tomorrow, but hopefully less stressful!!

The day commenced with us lugging all the clobber in cycling kit past curious guards at the incurable hospital in order to get the van and get Jo, Deanne, Pat and George away (I’d decided I didn’t want the boys riding in Naples). One guard asked me what we were doing and I got the basis of the trip over to him. He was very impressed but wanted to know where my bike was!! The van emerged from it’s underground bunker all intact and we loaded up and sent them away. The four riders, relaxed and confident, then had a pleasant breakfast and decided Naples wasn’t so bad after all. Then we rode. A few hundred yards down to the dock front on setts, then left onto tarmac….for 400m. We then had over EIGHT miles of uneven setts and flags, through endless narrow streets of triple-parked mad traffic, with scooters buzzing like mosquitoes in literally every direction. Often the traffic came to a complete standstill because someone had decided to have a chat up front somwhere – on bikes we were able to squeeze past most blocks but at one I had just decided that it was too narrow on the pavement even for me when I had to press myself and bike to a shopfront as yet another bl**dy scooter came through, hooting away. We did at one stage find a short section of empty road that took us past gesticulating literally third-world looking kids and families but this was a literal dead-end leading to the local cemetery!! Back on route, I kid you not that the name of the next section of road was Via Purgatorio (!!!!) and that’s really how we felt – virtually no progress being made on a long day and seemingly no end in sight to the cobbles. Paris-Roubaix? Peanuts!!
Blessed relief as we approached the first meeting point in Pompeii, with brief snaps of Mt Vesuvius that we’d caught glimpses of all morning but the onus was on keeping going. You’ll see why later!!

Friday 13th today. We approached Naples from the north on a derivation of the via Appia which was straight but got narrower and narrower. Being honked at became a way of life. We’d stopped at Madrigone and the contrast with Rome and northern Italy is stark. The place is dirty, litter-strewn and shabby, and wearing day-glo cycling wear feels very conspicuous. We took all the luggage off the roof rack before entering Naples. Good job we did!
As we rode into the suburbs we entered a surreal world of driving customs and horrendous road surfaces that has to be seen to be believed!! I used to think that riding down Great Horton Road in Bradford was bad, but that’s a picnic compared with this. No-one does anything except that which they wish to do, including window shopping, triple parking, reversing, chatting and swerving irrationally. All this against a backdrop of a constant stream of hooting, honking scooters and a road surface that hasn’t been improved or repaired in at least twenty years. I had the added excitement of route finding and Tizz shouting at me from the rear that the driving was appalling! As if I didn’t know! After a final left hand turn when a motorist tried to reverse into me after she’d missed her turn, we plunged into narrow, alleyways and ginnels, cobble and flag covered, to find the initially forbidding gates of the hostel. Miraculously, the van was there, although it wad already being buzzed by suspicious looking youths on scooters! We had to move it, and I’ll write about that in the next installment!

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!!

All roads lead to Rome! From Viterbo they lead upwards! After a slightly chaotic but unique breakfast, which consisted of our Polish landlady taking us all to a bar in the middle of the old town and haranguing the poor Italian chap within to suddenly produce a breakfast (which he did, but with unique combinations of chocolate pastries and cherry tart!!). Jo did miracles in moving the van out of a steeply-ramped cul-de-sac and the riders: me, Tizz, Bernard and Dave, worked their way out of the labyrinth of streets to the right road. Which went up. And up. And up. And up. For 11km!!! Limpet Tizz attacked early, and got a lecture from me and Dave about how to ride steady up long hills. As Dave was wearing yellow, we tried to pretend that she was a domestique protecting the yellow jersey from attacks by me and Bernard. This was successful for approx. 100m after which she pulled away and I just latched on to her wheel again. A photo opportunity at the top before a great descent, ruined only by the uncertainty of the road surface. Lovely smell of hot pine as we descended through the forests above volcanic lakes. At the bottom we had the breakfast we didn’t have in Viterbo and then had an unexpectedly fast section through Capranica and down to another large volcanic lake where the support team were frolicking again. This time we all changed and jumped into the water and it was beautiful!! A nice sun-bathe and another dip later and then we all watched Jo extricate the van and then set off for Rome. Still not flat, and still the appalling road surfaces that make it so dangerous to ride on any reasonable way. If you move out to avoid the potholes you’re immediately hooted at by drivers! We joined the SS2 into Rome which wasn’t too bad and which led us to the river where Bernard promptly had a puncture! A quick ride round some of the one-way systems led us to the central touristy bit and from there it was but a short weave round the grockles to the Colisseum and the sight of Charlie directing proceedings from a raised area near to our hotel. The latter had not let anyone check-in until we all arrived (what are they on?!) but very soon we had the bikes in the van and ourselves in the shower after another testing 65-plus mile hilly day. Great to be in Rome, although the strain of carrying a bag to the 3rd Floor of the hotel was almost too much to bear! A rest day tomorrow too – very welcome after the efforts of the past 3 days!