Riding the Mountains in Italy
Update 82 (March 2025)
Italy to Greece
Twenty four hours on the ferry from Spain was fine, but enough. The ferry’s arrival in Italy was perfectly on time and we were riding off by 21:00 as scheduled. It is such a pleasure to ride into a new country but have no border formalities to go through.
The port was about an hour north of Rome. I had booked a room in a guest house in a nearby rural location so I didn’t really see the city of Civitavecchia.
My plan now was to ride south and get a ferry across to Greece, to then explore the Balkan region. As usual, I had no route planned. I just wanted to stay away from the main tourist areas and would decide each morning where to go, normally based on sticking to the mountains, away from cities and maybe towards some appealing accommodation I had found. Good accomomdation normally means good surrounds anyway.
The weather in Italy was very kind to me. Each day was sunny and maybe a maximum of 12 degrees Celsius and a little more down south. I skirted north east around Rome and then gradually rode south. This area was Parco Naturale Regionale Sirente-Velino.
One afternoon I reached the town of Lucera, north east of Naples. The town had some interesting history but was too busy and I was having trouble finding appealing accommodation. Then I noticed a nice hotel in a small town nearby called Pietramontecorvino. It was back 20km but I decided to check it out. I ended up staying 4 nights and could have stayed longer.
The hotel I stayed in was newly built in one of the old homes, with a restaurant downstairs and a few rooms upstairs. The food was delicious. I spent my days relaxing and exploring the town.
It was a farming community and seemed pretty tight and not really used to visitors. Wherever I go, I try to be a friendly traveller, not over the top, but just polite and open. At first the towns people were not that warm, but after one or two days it was interesting how their reaction changed. Word must have got around, people started to know who I was. I picked up a couple of times that people already knew I was from Australia and staying in Ody’s hotel. By the end of the four days people were openly calling out buongiorno and I was even sharing a table at my breakfast pâtisserie and chatting with the local mums having coffee after school drop off.
The church was originally built in the late 12th century.
On my way to another nice restaurant for lunch. I lost some weight in Africa, but Europe is quickly threatening my waistline.
Todays mixed salad at Locanda di Ody.
Pasta with prosciutto.
Pietramontecorvino even had an exercise park that I managed to make use of each morning.
I think this was looking across at the town of Castelmezzano. I wasn’t quite ready to leave Italy, so decided to ride the long way around to Brindisi and the ferry to Greece. I began riding towards Parco Nazionale dell’Appennino Lucano Val d’Agri – Lagonegrese.
It was fun just meandering through the mountains and exploring with no plan. I probably miss some popular tourist spots doing this but it also gives a nice feeling of discovery when you stumble across a good find. This is Brindisi di Montagna.
The town of Trivigno.
Pietrapertosa.
Another appealing town, maybe it was Gorgoglione, near Stigliano where I spent the night.
This is the ferry from Brindisi, Italy to Igoumenitsa, Greece. On the weekends they were putting on an overnight service sailing from 22:30 to 9:00. I booked it through Grimaldi Lines but the weekend ship seemed to be Minoan Lines.
The trip price was quite a bit more than Spain to Italy, and shorter. Getting a cabin and some sleep was worth it though.
Arriving into Igoumenitsa, Greece on time at 9:00. Now to find breakfast and coffee.
Morocco to Barcelona, Spain
Update 81 (February 2025)
Greece to the Balkans Mountains
Update 83 (March 2025)