26-07-2015     Assisi → Tuoro Sul Trasimeno,   140 km

Breakfast at half past seven. Halfway another guest (she's Italian and speaks hardly any English) and the composer of one of the pieces of yesterday's concert – quite a mousy little man – take their seats at the breakfast table. Both Cosima (the German mother of the baby in the trailer) and the people from the B&B urged me to go have a look at the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi. And who am I to ignore their urgent recommendations and for once in my cycling lifetime do some sightseeing in a church (in former days were I top enter a church, it would be solely to take shelter from either rain or heat; well, excepted once, in '88, when Jacquie took me to a service in Guebwiller). The church is guarded by armed police (recently, after the terrorist attack in Munich, there has been an assault on a priest in France too). As I am on the earliest shift I don't have to stand/wait in a long queue. The church is grand, that I cannot deny (especially after it has been severely damaged during an earthquake some ten years ago), and find it very impressive that there is a very well-maintained, shiny shrine for someone who lived as long as eight (!) centuries ago.

	'My' morning view		Basilica de Francisco d'Assisi
	Back to my bike		Leonardo da Vinci's bike
	My bike		and the lovely lady of the house

When I leave, more and more people keep flocking towards this special place, apparently with quite a few pilgrims among them. I find my bike just how (and where) I left it half an hour earlier, fully loaded, in front of the B&B. The plan is to find a route with many curvy 'white' roads and to avoid Perugia (the worst cycling experience of this giro). And also to make it a leisurely day, which precludes an interesting loop north-east (possibly partly unpaved) of Assisi that would bring me back to Assisi. I decide to climb the Valico di Montemezzo from the south, which gives me the opportunity to redo a picture of yesterday of one of the basiliche with better light. It's a long climb, not steep, the temperatures are agreeable, and I had forgotten that the last two km are flat.

	Morning view of yesterday's basilica		And the same yellow
	asphalt road		Fresh man
	Quiet road from Osteria di Morano		to Valfabbrica
	With much unexpected		HARD work
	At the end a nasty descent		Pastry in Valfabbrica

I descend a little to Osteria di Morano, from where I expect a long, slow, curvy descent of sixteen km to Valfabbrica. And even during this last stage I'm proven WRONG. Until the last six km it's up and down ALL the time, and the uphill sections are MEAN, especially directly after Colemincio. Moreover, the temperature is close to 30°, I gather. At least I'm sweating all over! The STEEP descent at the end is no fun either. I arrive in Valfabbrica around 12:30, with only 40 km covered :-(   I have a cappu, a coca cola and two pieces of delicious pastry. I find a route avoiding main roads – well, only the first 8 km – especially avoiding Perugia – a route with two shortcuts (probably involving some climbing) to get to the Tevere. There I expect (and who knows for once I may be right) an even part of some 20 km along this famous river, followed by 35 km over the S416 to the final destination Tuoro Sul Trasimeno, and hopefully with not too much hard work. These first 8 km are almost flat indeed, slightly downhill even. The shortcut to Piccione is quite okay. I think I can sort of go straight on and cross the S298, but something goes wrong here. The road goes up for 2 km, which I had taken into account, but it continues to go up, and up, and up . . . .   I'm entering another fold on the map and think I can follow the signs for Gubbio. The road goes up much too long, and when I finally rearrange the map I see that I have been following the S298 for some 8 km (and have gone up from 350 m to 650 m at least; ouch!). This and the 'slow' morning almost force me to change plans and cross Perugia from east to west – even over this unappealing route it will be 70 km at least to Tuoro. I descend some 15 km to the Tiber, pass the junction where the road along this river starts. The roads that by now will mean quite a detour . . .   My telephone tells me it's as late as 2:45 p.m. already. So I hesitate . . . and decide to give it a go! I hope to cover 24 km in one hour and a quarter, and by just concentrating on pushing (and not stopping to put sun oil on my left shoulder (or change t-shirts)), I more than meet this deadline. In fact I manage the distance over a slightly rolling road in an hour! When at 3:45 p.m. I reach Umbertide I'm quite done for, however. Certainly not a leasurely last day!

	. . . .   After an unusually long stretch without pictures		But here's one taken in Umbertide
	Last fruit stall		Water bag with peaches ;-)

A beer, two ice Bounties and half a liter of acqua frizzante, and half an hour later I'm fit for the final stretch. At the junction where the road to Tuoro splits off I spot a fruit stall and buy some last of these delicious Italian pesche, and when I ask for some water (first I try to explain I just want to wash the fruit) I get a plastic bag full of it. I have a good laugh and make a photograph, eat them, and get going. The first half is much more even than I had expected, and I'm glad I've 'risked' this longer and hillier route. After Lisciano Niccione – where I buy some stuff for the long bus ride – the road gets up for a while, quite a while, but that's fine. I know I will go down every meter I gain now. Indeed six km before Tuoro (= 8 km before the end) I add a last Valico (Gosparini, 612 m) to my not so very long list (of Apennines passes).

	Start of the last stretch		First ten km are almost flat
	Mostly green, with some yellow breaks		And then a final climb
	To the final valico		With view over Tuoro and the lago

By then it is 6:30 p.m., and ten minutes later I reach Tuoro. A last ice cream, and then 2 more km, still slowly downhill, to Alberto Volante Inn. I'm welcomed heartily by Otto, one of the drivers of two weeks ago, and another driver and a cyclo tourist, Pieter, who has come the whole way from Holland to Rome on a bike (as a kind of pilgrimage to commemorate his deceased son). Otto had not expected a second passenger, let alone me (it seems he remembers my ambitious plans of two weeks ago!). I have a quick meal (with slow roasted meat) while Otto takes off the low riders from my bike (and neglects attaching the bolts tight enough, but this I only find out in Utrecht, alas). After we have picked up twenty-five other passengers in Siena, there's a surprise, at least for a fellow passenger who hears my surname and appears to be one of my brothers best friends. Talking with her (and after two weeks of small talk I'm afraid I'm like a cascade of stories) makes the first two hours pass away quickly and pleasantly. And the night, with two seats for myself, is not too bad either. In Utrecht it rains. And I miss two bolts. And there are no trains between Utrecht and Woerden. So only as late as 8:30 p.m. do I finally catch up with my fairy elf, with a shopping bag of niceties, 200 m from home.

The bus!

27-07-2016.   Home.   No more pasta and pizza!