Saturday we took the trains from Orvieto to a small town close to Macerata and then loaded up our bikes and road to Monte San Giusto on mostly quiet roads.
It was nice to get on the bikes and do a short ride to our hotel .. and our hotel was fabulous! Pictures don't do it justice .. but I've added a few in an attempt.
That night we walked in to the main square and found the locals and a small food festival. Some of us decided to stay for dinner sampling the local foods. Everyone was very friendly and Marion had fun with her Italian talking to many of the locals. They were surprised we were from Canada and here to cycle!
The next day (Sunday) we woke up to a bit of rain but by 9:30 it had cleared and so we dialed up a 35km butterfly loop mostly along ridges and off we went hoping to get back before the forecast rain!
Although this area is hilly, the roads don't seem to get very steep compared to Santa Fiora and we had fun visiting a number of villages before we rolled back into Monte San Giusto .. then the skies opened up and it poured rain for 20 minutes!
After the rains, and doing some shopping for food, we headed down the hill to our Villa in sunshine!
We felt we arrived in a Cuban resort with palm trees and a fabulous pool! Leo and his family are very friendly and offered to do us a dinner for tonight as we did not have much food with us! We are going to be very happy here! Did we tell you about the pool? We went for a swim .. relaxed and did some wash and then it rained again!
We are very fortunate to be able to do this type of touring .. and with such fun companions!
I will send out a separate email on our train adventure (Saturday) to a few of you that I know will be keen on how we managed 5 bikes and three trains in 4.5 hours!
