Italia 2020: day 13
By: Valentino M
Tags: Journal, Biketouring, Italy, Bikepacking, Slowbolt

Italia 2020: day 13

We woke up early in the morning. I'm not used to it but I'll admit that it was nice to ride in the fresh and still morning air. I parted from my roommates, and it was especially displeasing to leave Ilaria and Fiamma. I got to Gubbio very quickly after climbing a small hill, and there I got some new pedals and something to snack on.

Gubbio is an impressive medieval town. Huge, by the times standards. There are a number of palaces and churches (most of which dedicated to Saint Francis), all built in the local brownish stone.

Wandering around you’ll find countless nice viewpoints over the town or down the narrow streets. It all feels very cozy, endearing, beautiful. If anything, what spoils it is the frequent smell of dog poo. And while saint Francis is well known for his love of animals, I hardly doubt he’d let them shit everywhere. The town is also very, very touristy, and despite this year’s considerable drop in the count of foreign visitors, it’s narrow streets were crowded with people by noon.

I roamed around trying to find the most suggestive perspectives and particularly enjoyed the area around the Palazzo dei Consoli. At some point (the renaissance?) the local lords, probably tired of the narrow medieval streets, decided to have a large open-air plaza in Gubbio, and they had it built upon massive arches, like a bridge. It surely complements well the big palace which stretches far higher than it appears from the square, being its foundations a couple stories below.

In the vicinity, I visited the Museum of Jobs on a Bicycle, which I really I found quite surprising and mesmerizing. Think of a traditional job, they have the bike for it. It was very common in fact for Italian rural families to get goods and services from peddlers up until the 60s. I won't spoil it all for you, but I'm sure that my fellow venetians will be impressed with the distillery bike.

After that I climbed the excessively steep street up to Palazzo Ducale, and then onwards on the dirt road to the Basil of Saint Ubaldo, which is built 200 m above the town center, at about 800 m. It was really hot and once on top I generously employed the water fountain to refresh myself a bit. I had lunch enjoying the views over the valley. I didn't find the interior of the Basil of any interest.

I stayed up there quite a while. My plan was to then cross into the valley of Costacciaro by going cross country. Unfortunately I took the wrong turn and descended all the way down to the intersection with the road to Scheggia, at about 600m, and had to climb up again. It wasn’t a long climb, but it was quite demoralizing. I was also very much suffering the heat. Anyway, now on the right track, I started moving west on nice dirt roads, and then not so nice at all.

Unfortunately the roads just wouldn't stick to a given elevation, but just kept on going up and down. There wasn't much shade either, as the trees in the area are small. I don't know it that's due to logging or maybe to the wind. Not that there was any wind today.

Eventually I came across a place, lost out there in the boonies, called "Cannabis restaurant and clinic", whatever that means. The thing I know for sure is that it looked like a nice resort and that I'd have happily used their swimming pool.

The roads got worse and, when passing over a quarry, I found it a bit disturbing to read a sign that said: DANGER, exploding mines.

Anyway, I eventually made it to the other side of the hill and then down to Costacciaro. I'm not sure why, but I was feeling absolutely knackered at that point. It was about 6 PM. I just sat in the middle of the dirt road that led up to the old town and snacked on all the honey I had left and a big loaf of bread.

Costacciaro turned out to be very pretty, and I especially liked how the town walls merge with the natural rock wall, but I wasn’t in the mood for playing the tourist. I wanted to get some distance and get closer to the Monti Sibillini national park, hopefully out of this heat trap. So, after basically showering in a fountain in Costacciaro, I kept following the Flaminia highway to Gualdo Tadino, where I made the effort to climb to the old center just because I wanted to have a decent ice cream. Gualdo Tadino is a large town, mostly pretty ugly in my opinion, but the center is cute and lively.

My legs refused to carry me much further, so I stopped after a few more kilometers, when I came across an abandoned house along the highway. I camped in the courtyard under a big walnut tree.