17-07-2015     Vazia →   L'Aquila, 131 km

Served by an older woman that doesn't speak any foreign language (at least, not one I recognize), I manage, with some difficulty, to order a bowl of milk that I fill with a big serve of bio-cereals from Utrecht. (I don't like these dry toasts/cookies in plastic they often serve here.) So breakfast takes its time, the more so since my book is starting to captivate. I 'lose' another quarter of an hour trying to book a bed in L'Aquila. I try three phone numbers, none of which works, and often that annoying Booking.com is in between :-(   At the start my km counter tells me it's 09:08 a.m. Beautiful weather! A bit chilly at first, even more so since the first 3 km back to Rieti are downhill.

Hotel Valentino, hard to miss

Fresh, green start

On the map the little road P30 looks very attractive, but will I find it? I ask a Sunday rider for the small road to Vaccareccia, which is not too easy as (again) we don't share a common language. As a consequence indeed he sets me onto the wrong track, the R578. He checks whether I follow him and I don't want to disappoint (disobey) him. Fortunately this road is not too bad either. A bit busier than hoped for, but it's almost flat, through the wide, green valley of the river Salto. Moreover, the tarmac is in good condition. I'm beginning to forget bloody hot and steep Tuscany.

	Along the R578		The steep road up to Roccaranieri
	STEEP		Roccaranieri

After eleven relaxed km I turn right and am confronted with my first steep road in Lazio. Hard but nice! I climb to Roccaranieri, picturesque village, still in the Sabinian hills, of course on top of a hill, and have to climb a bit higher to the crossing with the originally planned P30. All in all some 350 m up from the point where I left the R578. Two police officers warn me there are no facilities in Longone, so I make a sort of detour (the whole stage is a detour ;-) via Rocca Sinibalda. A shitty steep and rotten (as regards the condition of the road) descent first, 350 m down, and then slowly uphill along another valley, and then from the crossing at Convento it's an almost even section to Rocca S (where from the form of the road of the map I had expected a steeper part).

The other valley

Yellow and green

All in all a hell of a nice morning. A break with two cappu's and a chausson au chocolat (amounting to € 3) at a nice, unorderly café and some groceries at the alimentari next door, on the stroke of 12. And I have only 35 km behind me . . . I'm getting older . . .   Rocca Sinibalda lies at an altitude of 560 m I can see now. After the break another very nice small road, first down (to 420 m) then up to Longone (at 760 m), and then up much longer than expected – the Michelin maps of Italy are not much help in this respect. It's okay (at most 7%?), and I ride along with happiness and patience. The highest point, I can see now, is just under 1100 m. The descent, which really sets in around Vallecupola, is nasty again. It brings me to the Lago del Salto, which I follow closely for some 10 km, along a curvy up-and-down road, without seeing much of the lake through the thick woods. Well, at the end I clearly see it when I traverse the lake over a long bridge, and then take a break in (warm!) Fiumata.

	Nice ride up		eventually ending
	Lago di Salto		eventually coming into view
	Fiumata		Phase one of a seeming never ending ride up

There's an ivy overgrown (if I remember it well) picnic area which is just what I need, and across the street there's a bar that supplies cold coca cola. I enjoy the rest, the coke and a sandwich. Wonderful day! It's quite a distance still till L'Aquila. How far? And how high is the pass I obviously have to cross when I study the map, which is situated between two peaks of 1590 m and 1610 m? The barman informs me that I have to go up 800 m from Fiumata till 1300 m (and at home I can confirm that he was right). That's quite an exercise, with the heat, and it also precludes an early arrival. I gain quite some altitude in the first nine kilometers, where halfway I cross the R578 only some 25 km from where I left it in the morning. I pass two or three small villages and then enter the middle of nowhere for a while. Halfway I leave Lazio and enter Abruzzo. Wonderful mountain road: open, with tender slopes (2-6%?), great views, for instance back to the R278 with two huge bridges. At 16:29 it's still 45 km till L'Aquila.   Ouch!   The time, that's my only little worry (I have no accommodation in L'Aquila yet). For the rest I thoroughly enjoy the climb.

	One of the viaducts of the R578		17-07-2016,   16:29
	More of the viaducts of the R578		GLORIOUS ride up!!
	Picturesque		passage
	Altitude gained		and still to gain
	Getting out		into the great wide open
	More and		more open

On the map the road makes two big V's, and where I expect the summit to be, at the turn of the first one, the road keeps on rising (very gently) till finally, around 17:45, without a col sign, the descent sets in. Woww, what a spectacular view onto the Corne Grande, which after the rain (snow) of two days before lies there blinking above everything around it. L'Aquila down there looks less appealing. The first half of the descent is nice, with the already low sun providing a colourful world, but the second half, passing through several villages, is not especially recommended by me. At 18:54 (the information of a photograph tells me) I cross the city border over a semi-motorway.

	Great road!!		In the 'overturned V'
	Almost 'there'		'There'
	Il Corno Grande		Il Corno Grande AND L'Aquila
	Destination reached		Final destination reached

At the first hotel I spot, still way before the city center, I book a room for € 100 for two nights. Not such a bad deal, and thus I avoid a tiresome search (while I'm already quite tired too). Alas the restaurant isn't open anymore, but on the other side of the (busy) road there's a take-away pizzeria, where I'm not bothered too much that they have run out of gorgonzola. The setting is not quite attractive. I have a beer and (quite) a (good) pizza, and am much satisfied about this best day so far.