Latest tweak - two nights in Narni and a train ride

 

Over time the various changes to our route and schedule had resulted in a sequence of riding days that do not allow for rest days. This sequence, (Sansepolcro to Ponte Valleceppi, Todi, Narni, Vasche, L'Aquila, Sulmona) is not what I wanted. I can't shift the starting date, I don't want to shift the ending date, so the only possibilities for change are to ride some longer days or to "skip" a day of riding.

The latter is what we collectively have decided is best. So that will mean that we will have two nights in Narni, skip Vasche and instead jump ahead by train to L'Aquila. The route from Narni to L'Aquila was never a highlight of the route and this will give us a free day in Narni which could be used to relax or to visit the cascades at Marmore.

After the rest day, the plan will be:

• Ride down the hill to Narni Scalo (less than 5km). The railway station is Narni-Amelia.
• Take the regional train to Terni (about ten minutes).
• Take the regional train to L'Aquila (about two hours).
• Ride a couple of kilometers from L'Aquila station to our accommodation.

Total journey is around three hours depending on connections.

Here's a thought... dinner planning

I'd like to challenge the other participants of the trip (riding and non-riding) to share in the joy/chore of deciding where we will have dinner each night. This implies doing the research, making the booking and communicating this to the rest of the group.

1. This would only apply to towns where there is a range of dinner choices.
2. Avery strong preference for local (regional) cuisine.
3. It would need to be a place that takes bookings.
4. No dinner bookings before 20:00!
5. Has to be easy walking distance from our lodgings.

Who thinks this is a good idea? Who is up for it?

Luggage

 Now that we know that we will be hiring bikes in Roma, I can plan what luggage I will take. This is based on the entire ride being unsupported.

On the plane

I will check through one bag with wheels which contains:

• two Ortlieb panniers
• the lightweight bike bag
• all the items that we will take on the ride including helmet
• the Ortlieb handlebar bag
• top tube bag

I will take as carry-on a Pacsafe  shoulder bag with all valuables.

The plan will be to leave the checked luggage bag and anything we don't want to take on the bikes in Roma. I have negotiated this with the hotel and we can leave the bag there.

Packing

The Supplied U-lock, spare tubes, battery charger etc. supplied by the bike shop will have to go into one of the panniers. 

On the train platform

• Take off the panniers
• Take off the handlebar bag with valuables
• Take out the bike bag
• The top tube bag can stay on.

On the train

The bike needs to be "bag ready" but if possible we will wheel the bikes on. If we have problems with railway staff, put the bag on upside down so it will still roll! Once onboard it will be possible to turn the bag the other way up and then maybe U-lock the bike to the train or lock the bikes together.

Riding

• Valuables in the handlebar bag.
• Other small stuff in the top tube bag.
• Everything else in the two panniers. Keep the U-lock accessible!
• Rack-top space reserved for extras (I will take a couple of grunt straps).

Outstanding issues

 

Here is a list of what I know to be the remaining issues: please let me know of any others!

• Bike hire
• How many?
• Where from?
• Bike return 
• What do we hire and from whom?
• Do we have to take the back to Bologna?
• How do we get them there?
• Car hire
• What to hire?
• What dates?
• Who will be driving?
• Finalising accommodation - this can wait till next year!

New and better bike hire strategy

I am revisiting hiring the bikes at Roma rather than at Bologna. It is easy to get on the train at Roma Termini or Tiburtina Station in Roma and then straight through to Bologna. This takes under three hours. On return it is easy to get on the train at Lecce to Roma Termini which is under six hours. This removes the need to go around the loop via Bologna on return. I have lodged queries with three local hire places... the first one has come back with a very positive response so I will flesh out this solution (exact times, dates, places). For at least Kathleen and Patrick this is a very good solution. Our timetable would be:

• 6th September depart SYD 21:10 QR0909

• 7th September arrive FCO 13:50 over night at Fiumicino or Roma

• 8th September pick up hire bikes ready to ride, train to Bologna

• 1st October travel Lecce to Roma, return hire bikes, stay in Roma

• 2nd October free day in Roma, stay in Roma

• 3rd October free day in in Roma, stay in Fiumicino or Roma

• 4th October depart FCO 09:40 QR0116

And then there were three

Today the good news that Chris and Pam have committed and are booked for the trip!

Chris will be riding and Pam will join us towards the end of the ride.

We also have one or two who are likely to participate but have not yet booked (as far as I know). More are welcome but the sooner you commit the easier it will be to arrange accommodation and other logistics.

Supplementary apps and technology tools

 

This post is intended to cover off on some tools that you might want to use to make planning and execution of this trip (or other trips) easier.

Planning

booking.com

• I use booking.com to make my accommodation bookings where possible. This means I only have one place to go if I need to make changes. It is also easy to see if you have skipped dates or doubled up (if you  get the dates for one or more towns wrong). There is also a phone app. Works well.

Tripit

• Tripit makes it easy to store lots of travel itinerary information in one place. You can also store documents such as travel insurance and so on. Tripit also makes it easy to safely share your itinerary with others. I have used it for decades. There is also a phone app.

Recording

• I use Blogger to hold my journal of the trip. It is easy to cross post from there to Facebook etc. There is also a phone app, called Blogger Pro.
• While travelling I hold all my photos in Google Photos. Afterwards I move them into Lightroom. I have not yet decided whether I will take a dedicated camera or just my Pixel phone's camera.

Navigation

• The planning is done in RidewithGPS.
• While riding I use a Garmin GPS on my handlebars which has the daily routes I created in RidewithGPS.
• For in-town navigation I use Google Maps. In the maze-like towns (Matera, Ostuni) I use guesswork and luck.
• As backup or for emergencies I will have my Garmin inReach Explorer which can call for help anywhere in the world.

Financial

• I use the XE app for current exchange rate information.
• I use the Settle Up app to record and reconcile situations where we spend money on behalf of others in the group. I recommend that you install this app which takes a lot of hassle out of  "I paid for lunch yesterday"...

Communications

• I intend to take my Telstra phone and continue to use my Australian number. For a three week trip this is almost as cheap as getting a local SIM and much less hassle. I believe the other major Australian providers have similar arrangements.
• If I take my tablet I will rely on local WiFi or tethering.

New page regarding driving/support arrangements

In the clickable tiles on the left side of the blog is a new page for driving and support arrangements, if we end up having a support vehicle.

It is not certain that we will have a support vehicle, but if we do then this page is intended to give enough information to make navigation easy for the driver.

Football along the route

Here is the disposition of teams that are based along our route in 2021. Some will change before 2022.  I'll keep an eye on it.

Lecce home supporters

Serie A

Only Bologna, although Sassuolo is not far away either.

Serie B

Lecce and Benevento on our route and Perugia is close.

Serie C

Modena and Monopoli are close.

 One of the two remaining accommodation locations has been resolved. We will stay at the Agriturismo at Varshe. Dinner promises to be all local food, prepared from the family, primarily from their own farm. As their web site says: "The Sant'Erasmo company is completely family-run and produces: milk, meat, fodder, jams, vegetables, fruit. The breeding includes dairy cattle, meat and poultry, which are sold directly in the company butchery attached to the farm."

Now we just have to sort out Lavello!

As a reminder, your priority in terms of booking accommodation should be Galeata, Sansepolcro, Ponte Valleceppi and Colli al Volturno. These are small (or in the case of Sansepolcro expected to be in high demand). The other towns and cities can be done after these. Having said that, your accommodation is your responsibility!

Personalisation of daily routes

 I have updated the daily route files in RidewithGPS so that they are specifically from my accommodation and to my accommodation. If yours is not close by then you might want your own specific route for the relevant days. The last 500m is often the trickiest, especially in the older cities with mazes of one-way streets!

If you can't do this for your self then I could help.

A busy 24 hours

 

In the last day I have:

• 
  Booked and paid for my flights
• Booked the accommodation for the first week. I will progressively extend this to the entire trip using free cancellation option at booking.com
• Created a page about accommodation. A link to this page appears on the left sidebar.

Another tweak to the route

 I am doing a rework of the route from Sulmona (well actually from Roccaraso) to Lavello.

Instead of Campobasso we will head into Campania and visit Benevento. This route avoids some less satisfactory roads and has somewhat larger towns than the previous route. It also has less climbing!

The route is roughly Sulmona, Roccaraso, Colli al Volturno, Benevento, Monteleone di Puglia, Lavello.

The maps, blog pages (and candidate accommodation) have been updated.

Travel Logistics

Taking my bike

If I take my ebike senza batteria, then I can see three viable models for getting me, bike, bike case and battery sorted.

Bologna

1. Fly to FCO and then train to Bologna with bike still in travel case.
2. Train to and from Imola to collect battery, get it fitted etc.
3. Leave bike case in Bologna
4. From Lecce, bike in light bag back to Bologna
5. Drop off the battery at Imola.
6. Bike back into travel case for train and plane.

It may prove difficult to find Bologna accommodation that can store the bike case and with secure storage for the bike while I am there. I'm looking...

Imola

Similar to the Bologna solution but staying in Imola instead of Bologna. Easier logistics regarding the battery and may be more likely to find a hotel with the required facilities. A shorter first day of riding. Tourist things in Bologna need local train travel but that is no big deal.

I'm looking...

Fiumicino

A variant of a tried and tested solution.

1. Fly to FCO, check into a local hotel, move bike from travel case to light bag.
2. Train to Bologna/Imola etc.
3. After returning to Bologna, train back to Fiumicino and reload the bike case.

This is not so good but it is a "backstop" in case the other solutions are not available.

Hiring a bike

This could be at Bologna or at Lecce and would involve taking the light bike bag for the train trip at one end or the other. I am pursuing this strategy as well.

 Ready to book

The window to book flights for  the dates I want is only a week away.  So I have updated the schedule with the specifics of the dates and times for the flights in preparation. The Qatar route SYD-FCO return is very good, with just the right times for the transfer at DOH.

In the last few days I have also made one small but fun tweak to the route. At the suggestion of Keith I have included the village of Narni in the route. This village was the inspiration for Narnia in the C.S. Lewis novels.

Spending a night there has led me to review the previous part of the route and I have made a change to that as a result. After Perugia we won't go along the valley through Spoleto and Strettura. The route through Strettura was there because in an earlier iteration it was a springboard to cross the mountains to Leonessa and then south to L'Aquila through Borbona. The decision to instead go via Terni and Rieti meant that that pause before the mountains was not needed, Now that the route will go through Narni (even further west) it makes the Spoleto-Strettua route an unnecessary detour.

Instead after Perugia we will continue to follow the Tiber down as far as Todi before heading over to the Fiume Nera valley and our stop at Narni.

Engaging...

Julie and I have been saying we are interested, but we have not really engaged.

Today I am starting. 

Wondering about what to do, see, try, explore in the cities and towns. In prior trips, often I have not prepared and hence failed to get to some amazing things. Resolved to be better prepared this trip.

Found out that I can get some Lonely Planet guides on my Kindle for "free" (under Unlimited subscription) so will start researching, putting together a list for each town maybe.

Daily .FIT files available

 I carved up the improved route into daily routes (assuming that all goes according to plan). These fifteen routes are in RidewithGPS. For convenience I have also created a .FIT file from each of these and they are in the Google Drive area but it is best to go to the definitive version in RidewithGPS in case I foget to update the copies.

Of course from the RidewithGPS routes you can make .TCX, .GPX or whatever you want! FIT files work best with Garmin but other GPS units might prefer one of the other formats.

Having each day separate also makes it easy to see the longest days. I am still thinking of shortening day one by taking the train from Bologna down to Faenza or Forli.

The daily files and numbered, but not consecutive as they "skip" the non-riding days.

You can find the Ridewith GPS files in the collection here. 

Fine tuning

I am reconsidering the route from Strettura to L'Aquila. I found the route Strettura, Terni, Rieti, L'Aquila which is about the same distance but cuts 640m of climbing. The route looks acceptably quiet since I found a direct-enough route that avoids the busy part of SS3 and then SS79bis. The completion of the direct SS79 has taken pressure of the secondary roads here. I have produced a variation of the route in RWGP and here is the difference:

There will be much more choice in terms of accommodation, food etc. on this new route. All in all it looks like a good deal!

So a little more pondering and discussion before I make the change, but if I do then:

• Add a new set of POIs
• Rethink the overnight locations taking the faster travel into account. I'm kinda keen to keep Strettura in the list...
• Update the route description page for Part 2 with the new route and location information including the subsequent distances
• Update the database with the new locations
• Identify candidate accommodation in the new locations and put in database

All in all, in terms of the overall structure of the ride, I think this is an improvement. There are days ahead with lots of climbing so this route through some valleys between the ranges will be a nice balance.

Moved route planning to RidewithGPS

 I couldn't get Basecamp to switch nicely between bicycle routing and car routing. I needed this so I could use a section of a SS road into Matera. So now a third option... RidewithGPS!

The entire ride has now been replotted in RWGPS. Like all route planning software, RWGPS has made the usual range of "interesting" choices... interesting in the "yes of course" category and also in the "you'd have to be crazy" category. No matter which software you use, you have to go over the route carefully to ensure that you agree.

For Part 1, the suggestions were mostly good except some routing via a busy highway that Garmin didn't suggest and which I had to manually correct. RWGPS found some really nice cycle path in the Tiber valley. For Part 2, RWGPS was a little too adventurous in the mountains, choosing some paths that look too rough for a laden bike. But then again it did better routing into Campobasso. 

RWGPS seems to frequently make pointless deviations off a main road through town onto back streets. This make navigation more intensive for not much benefit in many cases. All in all though I am happy with the results.

Part 3 was improved by me visualising a flatter route from Biccari to Matera. Slightly further but a much nicer ride.

Based on this slightly different route I have gone back and changed the route description in the pages of this blog. That is now up to date!

For now I regard the route planning as done unless some intended participant weighs in with suggestions or requests!!!

Ebike obstacle overcome

Today I heard back from the Giant retailer in Imola (about 34km from Bologna) and they will rent me a battery for my Giant Revolt!

So all I have to do is to take my ebike to Italy without the battery, fit the rental battery and then return it at the end of the ride to the shop in Imola. I could even ride there without the battery since is is pancake flat the whole way, or I can catch a Regionale train.

This is great news and it makes me look forward even more to the mountains in central Italy. With a 500wH battery I can make easy going of a 1000m climb. Don't get me wrong - I like climbing and if the ebike was not possible then I would still look forward to the trip but having the ebike means that each day I arrive fresher and with more energy to explore the towns and villages where I stop.

International touring with an e-bike

 Right now it is not easy to take your ebike internationally. I'd love to take my Giant Revolt E+ Pro to Italy to ride, but the prohibitions on transporting Lithium batteries make this effectively impossible.

So as a workaround I am trying to find a bike shop in Italy that will rent me a battery for the three or four weeks. It seems like it should be a good deal for them... after all if they are hiring out Giant ebikes then there is a good chance that they would appreciate having one or more spare batteries in stock. Right now I have not found anyone but I will keep trying.

The fallback position is to take my non-electric touring bike, which is more than capable for the task, just less fun! It has been to Lecce before :-)

The header image

The small town of Longiano in Emilia-Romagna, taken on my Italy Coast to Coast ride that I did with a friend in 2014.

This is not on our planned route but is fairly typical of Italian hilltop towns that we will see and explore on the planned trip.

The end of the beginning

This blog will be the "one stop shop" for planning the cycle trip and for blogging the actual trip (if it ever happens). This is a departure from previous practice where the planning was done in Google Sites and then I blogged the trip in Blogger.

Planning in Google Sites is not quite so conducive to taking feedback from others so that is why I have changed to this new approach.

• I have built a set of pages which will be relatively static that contain the planning information. These are visible in the footer.
• Files for download (currently just GPX files) are also in the footer.

Behind the scenes there are some Google Sheets as well but all the useful information from them is presented in the Blogger pages.

So already the route is complete and the general logistics have been sorted. All we need now is for the COVID-19 situation to stabilise so I can confidently book tickets!