Day 1 Roma to Castel Sant'Elia 71k 879m

A 7:30 a. m. Start for us as we left the Generator Hostel in down town Roma. It was a nice ride out of town mostly alongside the Tiber River. Being Saturday the roads were not as busy and very few trucks and service vans. We stopped for breakfast at a riverside Cafe and like most of our food purchases at the cafes I found the price to be considerably less than did the same back home. My pot of tea and a croissant was 3.40 Euro ($5.93 NZD).

The cycleway out of town was like a highway with a Centre line and sidelines as well. We thought it would be nice to be in the trail down beside the river however it seemed to be closed for repairs and after a couple of attempts we gave up on that idea. Again before too long we were out in the country with cropping beside the trail - I still find it hard to reconcile that here right beside a city that has been here for 3,000 years and now home to millions of people that right beside their apartments is a commercial farm.

The day progressively got hotter so that by lunchtime it was in to the thirties. Our lunch stop was at an old town Catalana) perched on a hillside. I mentioned hillside and that meant that we had a few hills to ride today and some of them were quite steep, fortunately they were not very long.

Our navigation took us to exactly the right spot for our B&B tonight and there on the wall at the corner was a sign with an arrow but still we could not see which place it was. I looked up and 50 metres away was a small Bar so off we go for a drink and directions. The owner took us across the road to the B & B and gave us three glasses of iced water with lemon, a bowl of chips and some salted peanuts, free gratis! Such wonderful hospitality.

It's been great to be on the road and underway on our ride to Paris.










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