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.