Garry McGivern’s Italian bicycle tour, Wednesday 2nd-June-2010 Gaeta to the outskirts of Rome. 100 miles. Well, that was an expensive stop last night. Two hundred euros for a room and breakfast! And to top it all, an hour down the road this morning, I came across a campsite! But that was an hour this morning on fresh legs. It was already eight o’clock by the time I’d stopped last night. Although, if I’d spent less time trying to find a room in other hotels, I might have found the campsite. But then again, I didn’t know it was there until this morning. And to be honest, I’d just had enough last night.
“All roads lead to Rome”, or so they say. Well, they did today! I had a lovely ride into Rome along the tree-lined SS7 Appian Way. An ancient Roman road which used to connect Rome to Brindisi in the southeast. Rome was as beautiful as ever. Apart from the cobbled streets! But at least they were nowhere near as bad as the ones coming out of Naples yesterday.
In Rome
While in Rome, I did the tourist bit and got my photo taken in front of the Colosseum, which a kind German family took. After getting my photograph taken, I decided to leave central Rome and find somewhere to stop. And what a nightmare that was. Pulling away from some traffic lights, I managed to snap a toe-clip off one of my pedals! In a rush to beat the cars, I pulled away from a set of traffic lights. And went to put my foot into my toe clip, but I hit a large cobble at the same time. And instead of putting my foot in the clip. My foot landed on top of it and snapped it off! Luckily it landed at the side of the road in the gutter, so I was able to retrieve it. Hopefully, I’ll be able to fix it.
Things didn’t improve either after breaking my toe clip. Every road I went down turned into a motorway. But after much perseverance, I eventually managed to find a way out of Rome. And I even managed to find a campsite. Although it was a bit pricey at twenty-five euros. But compared to last night’s hotel, it’s a bargain! Things seem to be a lot more expensive along this coast. But then I suppose there are a lot more tourists around here than there are in the south and east of the country.
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