Day 20
Sleeping location: Behind some hay bales about 10km outside Parma
Distance (km today/total): 166 / 2273
Estimated climb (m today/total): 300 / 13500
Tomatoes seen: 1 billion
Day in three words: Fields and fields
A hot flat day across the Po delta, where much of Italy’s farming is done. Met Matt at Milan station after a brief delay whilst I waited for the thunderstorm to stop (the curse of rain in a new country continues). Had two coffees, two large pastries and three scoops of ice cream while we talked about our route across Italy. One of the best things about cycle touring is that this is a totally reasonable, and perhaps even sensible, breakfast. Matt and I are riding down Italy from Milan to Bari over the next week, although Matt will get the train for the last 200km as he has to be in Bari earlier than me (and this is a flat boring bit of the route).
Today we committed to smashing out some big distance over flat terrain to make things easier for the next few days. The route was mainly quiet country roads past fields of wheat/corn/tomatoes, with the odd bit of cycle path. It was properly hot, especially in the sun, so we took it easy and steadily accumulated distance. Matt found a discarded and broken baseball cap outside a supermarket and decided to adopt it, because he is a hobo. Had a nice lunch stop by the Po river, and a nice but slightly sketchy dip in it.
So far Italians seem very friendly aside from the terrible driving (which I don’t take personally) and lots of people have asked about our bikes and route. The fact that they can’t speak English and we can’t speak Italian doesn’t deter them and we usually get there some kind of combination of gestures, place names and smiling. This is nice after the fairly standoffish Swiss and Germans of the last couple of weeks.
Made it to Parma (quite a pretty place) just before sunset, grabbed some baked goods and headed off to find a camp spot. The area was pretty built up but we found somewhere OK just off the main road hidden behind some hay bales. It was still warm at 9pm so I only set up the tent inner and did away with my proper quilt for the first time. I might not use it again for months. It’s odd to think that two nights ago I was shivering in three layers in the wet Swiss mountains. Just before bed we heard some odd noises from the nearby trees, but it was OK because I was in a tent and whatever it was would eat Matt in his bivvy first. Find out what it was in tomorrow’s episode...
Distance (km today/total): 166 / 2273
Estimated climb (m today/total): 300 / 13500
Tomatoes seen: 1 billion
Day in three words: Fields and fields
A hot flat day across the Po delta, where much of Italy’s farming is done. Met Matt at Milan station after a brief delay whilst I waited for the thunderstorm to stop (the curse of rain in a new country continues). Had two coffees, two large pastries and three scoops of ice cream while we talked about our route across Italy. One of the best things about cycle touring is that this is a totally reasonable, and perhaps even sensible, breakfast. Matt and I are riding down Italy from Milan to Bari over the next week, although Matt will get the train for the last 200km as he has to be in Bari earlier than me (and this is a flat boring bit of the route).
Today we committed to smashing out some big distance over flat terrain to make things easier for the next few days. The route was mainly quiet country roads past fields of wheat/corn/tomatoes, with the odd bit of cycle path. It was properly hot, especially in the sun, so we took it easy and steadily accumulated distance. Matt found a discarded and broken baseball cap outside a supermarket and decided to adopt it, because he is a hobo. Had a nice lunch stop by the Po river, and a nice but slightly sketchy dip in it.
So far Italians seem very friendly aside from the terrible driving (which I don’t take personally) and lots of people have asked about our bikes and route. The fact that they can’t speak English and we can’t speak Italian doesn’t deter them and we usually get there some kind of combination of gestures, place names and smiling. This is nice after the fairly standoffish Swiss and Germans of the last couple of weeks.
Made it to Parma (quite a pretty place) just before sunset, grabbed some baked goods and headed off to find a camp spot. The area was pretty built up but we found somewhere OK just off the main road hidden behind some hay bales. It was still warm at 9pm so I only set up the tent inner and did away with my proper quilt for the first time. I might not use it again for months. It’s odd to think that two nights ago I was shivering in three layers in the wet Swiss mountains. Just before bed we heard some odd noises from the nearby trees, but it was OK because I was in a tent and whatever it was would eat Matt in his bivvy first. Find out what it was in tomorrow’s episode...
Comments
Post a Comment