Ok so… Hans likes to ride the bike – a lot! And as the last ten years flew by he kind of picked me up and threw me into this sport. Not mountainbiking, not race biking …. more like light-and-fast cycling with camping gear. I always liked the idea to travel self-supplied. We are talking tent, sleeping bag, camping stove and so on.
Since Hans was working in italy at the time and he knew he would not have time for a proper vacation until he finishes work and I knew I wanted to get away from rainy cold Berlin before winter, we decided to take the risk and go biking in late autumn. Everybody who thinks “yeah… italy always nice weather” … not even close! The trip took place in 2018…. though 2019 at the same time it was raining threee straight weeks all over italy. Apparently we were really lucky back then.
This was my first vacation that was planned to be three full weeks – to compensate the long arrival and departure ways – we wanted 14 full days on the bikes. I was in best spirit – my health was not so much. Luckily Hans was a little worn off after pushing the last couple of days at work as well so that we both took two resting days before we even startet. It was raining anyhow. The last rain for the next two weeks straight though (*laughing like the devil*)
We started in San Giovanni Valdarno (close to Florence) and the original plan was to zick-zag the Apennin mountains as far south as our legs would take us. No particular daily goals because we planned to cowbow-camp anyhow. Only issue with this luxus is the lack of impetus resulting from it. Additionally we are both not very good at getting up early …. though is european fall really good at setting sun early. The result: our days were kind of short.
The first day was of course a half one. Legs were feeling alright, bikes in best possible shape and bags full of barre cereal to fuel the engine. We were still pretty close to the civilisation resulting in a camp spot that thought of later was almost rude. Right next to the road on a random meadow. Italy beeing famous for rather strict laws considering wild camping we were a little concerned. Later that night actually some italian guy showed up walking towards us from the dark – I was stressed. He looked at the Trangia camping stove and asked mangiare? I wittedly responded “si” …. he was super happy with my fluent italian. Or maybe if italians bust you EATING …. they understand.
The morning still a little grey but then officer sun came out ….man… we were pretty fucking happy. The day was a very beautiful one with lots of cyclig with nothing special to mention (slide show below). But then came the daily issue “where do we sleep without getting into trouble”. Or lets say it was not so much about really not getting into trouble as it was more a mind game. When you set this tent shit up and you are exhausted you just want to relax… and beeing afraid of any trouble kills your chill. You actually never get into trouble camping wild as long as you are polite and in the worst case submissive. IT IS JUST IN YOUR HEAD 🙂
We asked some locals if we can stay in their back yard. As we later found out it is typical for italian mentality to be very sceptical at first, but when they realize that you dont want to stay in their house or use their shower… that you just want to pitch the tent… they become what you would expect of this nation. Super excited and very warm. After all cycling is national sport. We decided to continue anyhow – and were rewarded with a shed with some farm tools in front of a beautiful stone house. Nobody home – we had the shed for ourself. It was open to one side – the side with the great view. Best place to stay – no questions asked. And we even hat beer from Sardinia – Ichnusa.
The next day was full on summer. Lots of cappuccini, downhill riding and finishing at a beautiful organic farm with B&B. Those usually have a patch of grass to camp on for folks like Hans and me. They were happy with us crashing self sustained – for free. The town below (Matelica) had a public swimming pool – that we went to of course, to take a swim and a shower. Only that we were so hungry before that we had a big snack and after the swimming (because at night it was rather cold) we went to bed right away. This was not the ideal idea – we should have eaten properly…. cause the next day was my very own black friday.
Pictures from (full) day 2.
The third day was mayhem. Legs were feeling empty …lungs not in such a good shape. I could tell that my feeling was right when Hans took off at the first hill to the town of Cameriono. We were taking it easy and went for the smaller roads instead, taking in some landscape. We were about to enter our first national parc “Parco nazionale dei Monti Sibillini” As beautiful as it was, as much was it a no-wild-camping-zone. And I was still slow. Uphill…. into the parc worked for me… but that boost was too late. We had to stay at a BnB. Spending a night in a proper bed was the best. Because next day was going to be hardcore anyow. I only took two pictures on this one – sorry.
We got up early and were served some rather strange italian breakfast. It was more or less a plate of biscuits – but the coffee…. never disappoints. Enough with the bla bla… CYCLING now: After a decent morning-downhill we were aiming for one small pass (Ussita to Castelsantangelo) a big pass (Castelsantangelo to Castelluccio (Norcia)). This was a place I wanted to visit in particular. I knew it from paragliding pictures I saw. It is a high altitude plateau with thriving flowers in spring. Thats how it looks in best possible shape 😀
Though it was also stunning in fall. We also figured that we were getting closer to the epicenter of the horrible earthquakes in central italy from 2016. Castelsantangelo was destroyed entirely…. the residents living in containers. Same with Castelluccio… and then Norcia (as we figured out the next day). Riding up to Castelluccio was fun but the day was long and to leave the plateau we had to gain another 200 meters in altitude before we were honored with the most amazing downhill to Norcia – our designated finish for the day. No cars, the sun was setting as we were blasting down the road. Me wrapped in everything I could wear – Hans in a t-shirt…. yes… a fucking t-shirt. It was like somwhere around 1° or 2° C and we were riding down 50kmh at least. I still dont understand how he does it.
We didnt want to get too close to Norcia since it is a proper town with no chance of camping. The sub-urban Norcia is a little gipsy style but we managed to find a spot on an acre. As I was ringing a door bell at the house next to us a dog came out going nuts on me. The woman was nice, showed me where i could fill up water – while my head turned to look where she was pointing the beast (dog not woman) took its chance and bit me. But i was wearing me long johns and the dog was small so only i tiny little blood. Still…. this was the moment I started to hate dogs – for the term of this holiday.
It got dark at like 4:30 p.m. but we could not go to bed before …lets say 9 p.m. So we did some intense cooking and then watched Bayern München vs. Borussia Dortmund on my cell phone. Yeah we were cycling not detoxing digitally ok? This was the first night Hans was freezing a little. Due to logistics we only managed to supply him with a 3-season sleeping bag. Not enoug for clear late November nights. An issue we solved later that week with some smart geological decision making. The pictures of that day.
The next day we warmed ourself in the most elaborate way possible: some very vancy cafe. Our favorite dish the cornetto crema (a crossaint filled with vanilla cream) was made fresh. They take the crossaint insert a tube and fill it with this cream from heaven. It was the best.
We planned to cycle the “Ferrovia Spoleto-Norcia” an old railway track that has been re-furbished to work as a cycling track. So we did not have to take the road – but as you can imagine in italy…. we had some work to do in finding the right way every now and then. Still it was very nice. Highlight was for sure the crest tunnel (Scheiteltunnel) before our descend down to Spoleto. A straight line of maybe a kilometer in lenght through that mountain – no lights. Very eerie. We made camp behind the town on a meadow – not setting up camp too early since it was kind of urban around us. While we were waiting for the sun to set a group of boar crossed on front of us. Kind of funny seeing them running across in high grass. They look like floating brown balls because you cant see their short fast moving legs 😀
That evening we decided we had to skip south a little, because the mountains around us (Abruzzi) were too high in elevation for the already cold night temperatures. We wanted to get to warmer terrain. We decided to take the train the next day down to Potenza where Hans was able to find a couch surfing host.
Apparently I did not take any pictures of that last day of the first week. Well….
Week 2
The stay in Potenza was really nice. We were basically stuffed with food and wine and even beer (self brewed) because our host cooked for us. I did not sleep super well with a stomache this full – but it was worth it. Very interesting guy who repairs medical instruments all over the world. He even gave us a mokka cooker (as a gift) because we didnt have anything to make our own coffee, which (as an italian) he did not understand, what – in turn – I understood. The next day we took off… south from Potenza to Laurenzana. Amazing 20°C and blue skies. See for yourself.
The next day we went from Laurenzana to Calvera. There is not too much to say about this … it is just candy for your eyes. Since the villages are so old and so remote they must look like this since hundrets of years. They are all build up on top of the mountains and never in the valleys. We figured it must have to do with defending yourself against invaders or maybe because the river beds are wide and tell stories of flooding. Nevertheless one has to mention that the region of basilicata is very poor – as most of southern Italy is. I underestimated just how poor actually. One shop i visited to buy some groceries was maybe 8m² in space – and the only one in town. It actually had a mini cool counter with mortadella, mozzarella and some salami. And in a shelf there was freaking methylated alcohol for our stove… I couldn’t believe it. And boy were these people nice. I could only communicate with gestures but they actually followed me outside to help me pack the food in my panniers. Then the owner realisied that he saw us passing with our bikes two days ago in Potenza. He could not have been happier to see us again… I was already getting ready for a hug. It was a moving moment. I realized at that moment that biking was invented to explore places like this … where few spend their time and money.
The follwing day we wanted to make a big pass. We figured out that there is a road that goes directly through the highest part of the “Parco Nazionale del Pollino”. Off we went down to Francavilla in Sinni and from there up the Pollino. In the highest parts there is a large forrests of birch trees. We were alone basically all the time and later that night you could actually hear wolfes howling. A very mystic place – espacially in misty late fall. When we came down to Rotonda we knew we had to ask people if we can stay outside of their house somehow, because it was still national parc. A team of two architects actually helped us (not only with excellent espresso) but with “a go” for camping under a shed roof. As we had a nice dry patch to sit on and new fuel for the stove we made a sugo that we let simmer for almost two hours. I now understand why folks that travel looong distances have little kitchens with them. Your daily routine slows down – so you have the time to become creative and improve your mobile kitchen skillset – you are hungry and cant eat the same stuff every day. I whish I could give you readers a taste… but it was de-li-cious. Ah and did I mention that Hans became quite the dog whisperer? He figured out that all dogs in Italy are afraid of you, if you raise a wooden stick. So off he went, to fetch us some beer for the big dinner.
The next day we turned west to get closer to the coast. This goes along with more civilisation but also with train tracks that we needed in the very end to get back home (north). The landscape pretty but not spectacular and as always a bit unnerving to share bigger streets (strada statale) with cars. At one point we were so far south that we entered the province of Callabria. It was a strange feeling to be so far away from Berlin knowing that I will not take a simple flight back home to make the 2000+km to get to work in four days. It was a long chain of things that had to go right. A mix of adventurous and tension in my stomache.
The day was rather long, because we wanted to make it all the way to Sapri and night was setting in because Hans and me had one cappuccino to many…. what you gonna do…. 90 fucking cents each + bisquits for free. As we suspected coastal towns are the oppsite of ideal when it comes to camping and to top it all, the valley that descends to Sapri was experiencing some furious Föhn-like falling winds…. well… it was a freakin storm. I got to give it to Hans….. I was already thinking about googleling for hotels when he said “i might have seen something”. We decended at least 200 meters in altitude and some kilometers road-wise. What could he possible have seen that was so far away? Then he stopped went through a gate up a private road and there it was: A ruin of something that at one point must have been a resort with ocean view. We had privacy, no dogs, shelter from the storm and a preeetty damn good view. Props buddy.
We come to the last day and we could not have prepared ourselfs for what was about to come. “Parco Nazionale del Cilento” – the little brother of the amalfi coast. Empty streets, 21°C, blue ocean, beautiful towns and nonstop cycling with view. It was almost december and yet we felt like we were on a serious summer vacation trip. Even I was wearing a t-shirt!
We started the day by descending the last km’s into Sapri and visitied the local bakery, sat down on a bench directly at the beach and prepared ourself like ten mokkas on the camping stove while chatting with curious italians. Takin in the sun heating up from the windy cold night. Than we cycled the coastline and had to do one little pass over to Camerota. From there it was little up- und down-hilling – just have a look at the pictures. We arrived in Ascea to a very nice room that we treated ourselfs with. The super market there had ichnusa non filtrata – do i need to say more? We watched the sunset from the terrace to some music from the boom box and had a couple of cold ones.
The next day we hit the trains back up to Florence. @DeutscheBahn… can you also please allow to travel the entire country easily with a bike and make me spend 28€ for 800km trips. Thank you – Italy.
Oh did i mention we made a little stop in Naples switching trains? We took the bikes to the most famous neapolitan pizza place. We received acclaim by scooter drivers passing us for daring to ride bikes in Napels. It was an …. experience that much is for sure.
Yes – on my way back over the brenner pass it was snowing. The Map of the second week to finish off. Hope you enjoyed.
