Day 2: Lago di Bracciano loop

September 8, 2023

Água de Beber*

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This may be the only map I provide for the journal. I use Komoot for navigation, and it's either a huge pain or maybe even impossible to get the embed code from the Komoot app. Plus which I don't know if the embed code would even work on CycleBlaze. I enjoy spending my down time writing, but tech troubleshooting? No thanks. Today I double-recorded with both Komoot and RideWithGPS. It drained my phone's battery so quickly that it would be foolhardy to try it again on a real tour day.

On to today's wrap-up. I think we're mostly over our jet lag, which is good news both for us, and also for you, dear reader, who must surely be tired of me blathering about it.

I don't think I explained why we're taking an off day so soon. It isn't exactly our style, and it feels awfully decadent. The deal is that I fell in love with the idea of staying at this place I found on OpenStreetMaps, but they have a 2-day minimum. After hemming and hawing for a while, I finally decided to book it. I'm a sucker for rustic accommodations, and this place clearly fills the bill.

Please ignore our junk spread out all over the floor

In the U.S., one could never get liability insurance for a place like this

The view towards our mostly-useless balcony

Anyway, enough about the digs.

I mentioned yesterday that we planned a ride for today. What i didn't add was that it was tentative. I had a gut feeling that we were going to bail. However, this morning we were both feeling up to it, so we packed a lunch and hopped on our bikes. We're glad we did!

Pictures first:

The unburdened bike eager to bolt from its stable

An all-too-short bike path on the east side of the lake

A representative snapshot of the lakeside road

I hate to say it, but the most lasting memory from today will be that the asphalt quality to and from the lake mostly suuucked. But the lake road was all right. It included a lot of nice scenery, and quite a few moments of tranquility. This is one of those times when riding during shoulder season really pays off.

Even though we didn't push ourselves too hard, we started to feel the toll of exerting ourselves in the heat. We stopped at a market on the way into town, dreaming of a big bottle of sports drink or a yogurt drink. We had to settle for warm Fanta. When mixed it with cold water, it hit the spot.

We got hungry pretty early, so our dining options were a bit limited. We opted for a Roman pinsa, which I guess is just a pizza with a different shape and maybe a slightly different dough recipe.

Zucchini flower pinsa. Interesting concept but kinda bland, to be honest.

We decided to stick to our original route on Eurovelo 7 rather than to follow the Via Francigena. I'm sure that the latter is as awesome as those Canadian fellows described it. But we'll have to save that for another time.

One last thing: I love the interaction we're getting from fellow CycleBlazers. I tend to only be really active on the site when I'm touring, and then also when winter hits and I start dreaming of touring again. During the summer months, it just seems like there are too many adventures happening in real time to keep track of who's doing what and where. So I applaud those of you who are following along right now, as well as friends and family who are taking time out of their busy lives to check up on us.

* Lago di Bracciano is a drinking water reservoir for the city of Rome

Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 120 km (75 miles)

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Steve Miller/GrampiesHere's hoping you did not pee in the lake, er, reservoir. Too bad you feel you cannot put your track into your blog, it helps so much with context, we find. Steve takes our Osmand track and puts it in the blog as RidewithGPS. If you are interested perhaps he could tell you how he does it. I (Dodie) am not technical, but it seems to take him only a few minutes. Maybe it would work with Komoot?
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8 months ago

Lyle McLeodGood call on avoiding the Via Francigena. On our 2019 tour (CPH to Lecce https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/lecce/) we also abandoned the VF for the EV7, perhaps later than we should have though. The VF seems to be more suited to the ‘on foot’ pilgrimage crowd.
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8 months ago

Suzanne GibsonI, too,use Komoot for planning and navigation. It does take a few minutes more to embed the map than if I were using RWGPS, but it works for me. Komoot has a feature that allows you to download your route as a gpx file. Once it's on your phone or computer you can import the gpx file to RWGPS. At first it was a bit fiddly and you might not want to bother, but once I got the hang of it, it didn't take much time at all.

I am enjoying your discovering Italy, so keep up the entertaining journaling and don't worry about the maps.
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8 months ago

Kevin StevensTo Suzanne GibsonThanks to you I've figured it out. I've e updated my entries. Pretty awesome! As you say, it's clunky, especially on a tablet, so I might just do them in batches on rest days. We'll see how it pans out.
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8 months ago