Bob on BAC Umbria - Rome to Assisi 2009

Wild Flowers

We were all reluctant to leave our wonderful hotel in Piegaro. Partly because the hotel was so good and partly because the weather forecast was predicting rain. Everybody got the jump on me, starting out early so that they could get to the next hotel before it rained. It was advertised as a hilly ride, so lots of riders were nervous about getting to Sorano in time. I packed my rain pants in a pocket of my jersey and wore my rain jacket.

I left after helping Tom fix Julie’s flat tire. Being the ride directors, Tom and Julie always leave last. Normally they rotate driving the van. Today, three of the women decided to skip the ride and ride in the van while Martha drove. This meant that Tom and Julie could both ride.

Hilltop Village

The day’s ride was very scenic. We had lots of ups and downs on sparsely travelled roads past several hilltop villages with their defensive walls and castles. We rode past olive groves, vineyards and park land. I stopped several times to take photos. I gradually passed all of the riders in our group except Alice and Mark. They arrived at the hotel just after me and said that they saw me go past them as they were eating lunch. I had lunch at a gas station/bar/restaurant/motel about 6km from the end of the ride. I had already eaten two bananas and a Snicker’s Bar, but I needed a little more fuel.

After eating, the skies were getting pretty dark, so I stepped up my speed to try to beat the rain. I was cruising pretty fast (for a semi-loaded Bike Friday) and feeling good when two Italian cyclists passed me going a lot faster than me. I tried to jump on their pace line, but it was impossible. They were out of sight after a couple of kms.

Our route took us up through Sorano and out the top for about 1 1/2 km to our hotel, Villaggio Le Querce. When I got there, nobody was in the reception areas. In fact, everything was locked up and I couldn’t even find the front desk. The maintenance man called someone for us (Mark and Alice had arrived, too) and pretty soon a young couple came and checked us in. This is a resort hotel but it looks like the season hasn’t started yet. We all have nice rooms with a sitting room, a kitchen, a bathroom and a separate bedroom.

The Restaurant Owner and Julie

We had our normal happy hour at 6:00. The women who rode in the van today bought the goodies. There were fresh sliced apples and a couple of kinds of cheese. These were the good things that I remember. Because it was now raining, we shuttled in the van to dinner in the town. We had several tables reserved in the group area of the restaurant. We started with a really good soup called cooked water. It had lots of vegetables in it with some chunks of good Italian bread. For a main course, I had home-made long, flat noodles with a sauce of ground wild boar. Dessert was fresh strawberries with vanilla gelato.