We have had a slightly frustrating day today battling through Perugia. To be honest, it's not the prettiest of Italian cities and you can get fed up with industrial estates, congested streets and lots of litter. We also found it was at the top of a long long hill. Whilst in England it's a fair assumption that a road will follow the easiest route through the terrain and that the city will be in a valley. In Italy things are different, all cities are old fortresses and are therefore as inaccessible as possible, which makes cycling to them a bit of a pain. We found that we have spent what should been an easier day going up and down big, big hills.
Some facts and figures for those who are interested. Firstly, I have covered just over 2200km and everything is now aching all the time. I am finding that strange things are happening. I can't hold a fork because the constant impact through the handlebars is having an effect on my nerve endings and my eyes are on fire as i am digging out about 10 flies every evening...nice! Secondly, Martin has been cycling with a heart rate monitor and yesterday he burned just over 6000 calories! We cycled for 7 hours 58 minutes and he was only under his range for 3 minutes!!
Tomorrow we start the mountains and we are expecting two and a half days of climbing before our final descent. Yes, the Apennines are that big! We are now 20km North of Spoleto in Umbria
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
No comments:
Post a Comment