Italy

We have reached Italy! And it started with the best cycling weather a cold night and beautiful views descending down the Resschen Pass until we reached Meran. Meran is a nice city surrounded by big mountains.
Also have a look at our blog post Rhythm, Reschen and rich history

To do something else than cycling we decided to do some hiking in the snow around Meran from the village Falzeben up to Meran 2000.

From Meran we followed partly the Adige river, then we took a detour along Lago di Gardo to get back on to the Adige river until reaching Verona.

From Verona we had almost reached the lowest point again and the following kilometers would be travelling through the less interesting and rainy Po valley. Luckily the cities Ferrara and Bologna made the trip worthwhile.

Leaving Bologna we had the Apennine mountains to cross. Slowly we made it up to 986 meters. We met a lot of speed cyclers and that only means one thing: that there are hills to climb.

We decided to stay a day in Siena to have a look at the highlights of the city and to do some night photography.

On the day we were in Siena the Strade Bianche was held. This is a speed cycling competition and is the first classic. a warm-up for Tirreno-Adriatico apparently. We were at the finish to take in the atmosphere.

From Siena we had five or six days to reach Rome. We were very pleased with the weather, the views and the small Tuscan villages. The roads proved tough in steepness and in quality but the other aspects made it all worthwile :) We end this album in Sorano, a small traditional village with pretty houses.

Only on the last two days heading for Rome it was really feeling like it was all reality. We are really on our way to Rome. We cycled along the Lago di Bolsena and Lago di Vico. We camped at a necropolis close to Tuscania and in a hazelnut orchard. We cycled up and down and on the last day mainly down towards Rome and along the Tiber ending up on the Vatican Square.

Our days spent in Rome, some known sights and some less known :-)

From Rome we followed the Via Appia south, we made it to the Mediterranean sea, cycled past Circeo NP, Terracina and made it past Naples towards Pompei.

We took a day out to discover Pompei and the excavations of the ancient city.

Attracted by the nice weather we decided to cycle all around the coast towards Sorrento. From there we cycled around the furthermost peak to the small village of Termini, where we had lunch and back again south of the peninsula along the Amalfi Coast. Here there are some gorgeous little towns high up from the sea with pretty buildings and nice nature views. We had difficulty with finding a campsite and camped just outside Amalfi in Atrani at a pizzeria next to the water.

Leaving the beautiful Amalfi coast we went inland. The first kilometers were flat plains until we reach Eboli. From there the hills started to rise and we were in thermal area. We crossed through the Apenino hills towards Venosa and Altamura and visited Laghi di Monticchio before descending down.

We had almost reached Mola di Bari for our Help-x project and had some time to visit some small towns along the was such as Cassano, Aquaviva, Casamassima and Rutigliano.

We helped out at a HelpX volunteering project in Mola di Bari where we spent two weeks working in a straw bale house and learning more about the Italian culture.

Week 2 at our HelpX project, making the mix and plastering walls, also pictures of all dogs and the garden.

The barracks is a special place in Bari, an old military place that has been squatted since February and where new initiatives are blossoming. Great place to be creative and have a look round.