Yesterday we had our second ride out of Vasto and it was a perfect ride on a big sky day with views of a deep blue sea on the horizon from ridge roads with no traffic.
We stopped at our hilltop destination of Casalanguida and noticed the locals buying fruit from the back of a truck so Marion lined up behind a little old lady filling her pantry. It took her a while but that gave me time to discover a wall mural of old photos of the local band in competition from the early 1900s.
A perfect day!
Last night it rained and this morning we loaded up our panniers and took off on our route to Larino with clearing skies. Again, we found the roads great and even quieter than yesterday! Lots of agriculture but little wine making which seems to make the roads pretty quiet.
... then we turned down a small SP road (provincial road) that started to get a little rough. Then we hit a muddy patch .. shades of Cuba! After some repeat encounters with mud patches, we finally emerged on a good road! There is a lesson here .. but I'm still trying to learn it ... got some great pictures though and we are both getting pretty good at digging mud and stones out of our cleats!
The final climb into Larino was fine .. but we could not find the historic centre so we headed to our hotel .. which has some pretty nice spaces for relaxing!
Today's 60km 1124m ascent was a bit of a tough day .. Might have been just a wee bit too much mud.
Tomorrow we head off to Lucera were we finally were able to book a place for 3 nights that looks good. (There is a story here too ..)
