THEY MADE IT! THEY CONQUERED THE TOE!
Now they just have to cycle back up the other side!
A long ride today at over 85 miles. It started with rain and wet roads with rolling thunder in the hills, which sounded like the drum beat for the ride. Those hills were, in fact, two long slippery hills (2,100 feet to start off the day!). At least the roads began to dry out as the day wore on. Alarmingly, but in line with the earlier landslide and rockfalls, they passed a sign that said that the road ahead was disappearing…and indeed it was!
Lunch was late (3pm) in a little pizza joint, when they found one open, and they could easily have imagined themselves in Brooklyn (except for the price at less than 10 Euros each, drinks included)! The sight of fly-tipping/garbage everywhere piled in the mountains was pretty disconcerting and the final 10 miles through Reggio Calabria was pretty harrowing with cars following no highway code, from what could be seen. Reggio may have been a pretty town once, but that must have been some time ago. They had the latest arrival at the lodgings so far, arriving at 7.15pm. They are so far south now that this was after sunset! They would have been later had they not woken up some mad dogs in a sleepy village. Four chased after Paul who, apparently, has never cycled so quickly up a hill before!!
The sight of Sicily was spectacular, even through the clouds, despite the somewhat disconcerting sight(?) of smoke rising from Mount Etna! Richard S, the commercial real estate man, liked the massive pylon on Sicily that must connect to the mainland….presumably because it adds so much beauty to the backdrop of Etna!
They’ve gone up-market this evening to the “Bad Bull” restaurant where they variously had steak and fries or grilled chicken with the same mushroom side dish. They jumped ahead a few days for the wine and had a 2019 Poesie Cabernet Sauvignon from Veneto (Venice region).
Tomorrow they head to Torre Ellera, tracing round the sole of the boot. Has anybody told them, I wonder, that Torre in Italian means small mountain?!
Data: 85 miles (137km), elevation of 5,928 feet (1,726m). Cumulative: 1,126 miles (1,802km). Elevation 65,240 feet (20,126m).