15-07-2015     Perugia → Magliano Sabina,   127 km

After a restless night – again what could I expect with so many young people in the room – around 7:15 a.m. I think I have been lying on my three-high bunk long enough. As noiselessly as possible in the semi-darkness I gather my things and leave the (stuffy!) dorm. I have a look outside, and it is raining . . . . quite hard. There's not much of public space in the hostel, especially since the (small) bar c.q. breakfast corner is still closed. Breakfast is not included (and will start as late as 8:30 a.m.)   On the staircase to the second floor I find the Bask I had a short encounter with yesterday evening – I have forgotten his name. We chat along while I munch way my last currant rolls from Nootdorp. He has plans to go to Rome, by train, with his guitar. The rain goes on and on. An employee of the hostel arrives to serve breakfast. Well, why not (and not only cappuccino). At a table I can also write a few lines of my experiences in Italy so far. And learn from a Belgian guest that De Gendt has won a stage in the Tour, that Froome has crashed into a motard and that there has been an incredible and devastating terrorist attack with a truck on the Boulevard des Anglais (on July 14, the French National Holiday). Around 9:30 I gather courage to set off in the rain. The next hours will bring the worst cycling experience in Italy of the whole trip. It's raining. There's a lot of traffic. The road goes down for quite a while and is quite bad. It's unclear which puddles hide serious holes, and to go round them feels dangerous with all the cars. My brakes seem to be quite loose. Damn! As in Siena it is DIFFICULT to find the right exit. I'm happy to see a sign for Ponte San Giovani, but there I'm confronted with an unauthorized motor way. I'm completely disoriented, and it rains and it rains. For a moment I fear I have to go back/up; not much is left of my courage; but then I get unto a road that seems to go in the right direction, and indeed brings me to the P375, the road I'd hoped to find. The other misfortunes remain: rains, cars, rotten tarmac, puddles, . . . .   The road is reasonably flat, but every hill hurts, particularly the descents. I stop to check my brakes and it appears that one of the blocks has got loose and has turned 90 degrees. And these are new brakes that were installed only two weeks ago. Hell! Around twelve, with some 35 km (not good!) traveled, I'm cold and tired and find a dry place – not especially warm (outside it's only 18°C) – in Marsciano.

WET start

MANY hours later (after the break yet)

I create a lot of wetness around me: a drenched chair, a puddle on the floor. I drink some cappuccinos, eat a bar from the bar and later a panini, read some pages in my (so far) not very catchy French novel (to escape from the disappointing here and now) and ask for the weather prospects. The rain is supposed to stop around 2 p.m., and indeed around that time (still only 35 km on my counter!) I exchange the place for a dry outside. Of course after these delays there's no time for interesting sidesteps. However, my luck returns: The rest of the day I have a good wind from behind. I pass the river Tevere (a.k.a. the Tiber), pass Lodi, and from there ride parallel to the motor way, and later on also to a railway. With the wind from behind I can keep quite a good pace; otherwise the destination Magliano Sabina would have definitely stayed out of reach. Not much time (nor inspiration) to make many photographs today. Well, here are a few:

	Around Narni		Into the hills; Yeah!
	Down to the Tevere again		And quite a climb up to Magliano Sabina

From Narni the environment gets NICE. Mountains! A short climb, a few tunnels, and a long, gradual descent at the end, to the Tevere again. And then a three km stiff climb to Magliano Sabina, a multi-levelled village. One of the first houses is a kind of workplace, where I notice a motor cycle. I enter the place and a helpful man adjusts the cables (and, like myself, wonders how the hell can you connect one cable to two handles!?). So, indeed, my luck returned after the deeply depressing lunch break. And even more so when higher up I find a town map, and a man who is busy pasting a poster asks me whether I'm André. On my reservation I had filled in an arrival time between six and seven, and now it's close to seven-thirty. I follow Corrado's (my 'host') car to the youth hostel, which is only a few hundred meters away. It's a nice hostel and it appears I'm the only guest tonight. I get a super room, with a double bed and private bathroom. For dinner he recommends a ristorante 200 m away, also the place for breakfast tomorrow. I'm happy again! The ristorante is quite small, the food quite authentic, I guess (though there's not a sign cucina autentica outside), and tasteful. An old man and his wife run the place, and later on some relatives arrive to celebrate someone's birthday. And someone points out to me that there's an 'interesting' mountain close to Rieti: the Monte Terminillo. Having no plans (reservations) for the rest of the trip I decide that will be my 'warming up' col/climb, without luggage, tomorrow. I return to my room around 10 p.m., spend some time in the guest lounge, for the wifi, and THEN am confronted with a locked bedroom! AARGH! I only have my telephone. Corrado's visiting card is in my bedroom as well, and I have deleted his text message from my phone. AARGH! I also call (and startle) my daughter in Holland. Who surprisingly is 'online', but can't help me out. In shorts (luckily not in my under wear!) and t-shirt, barefoot I tiptoe to the ristorante, where there's still light, where they don't know Corrado's number, but, wait, via via someone succeeds in obtaining it, and ten minutes later Corrado's car is standing before the restaurant. Problem solved. What a relief!