Anzio to Rome

September 26, 2015

The ride to Rome was not expected to be overly exciting. The best analogy I can come up with is to say Anzio is to Rome as Baltimore is to Washington. Both are port cities, about 40 miles from the capital, with a local seafood specialty. And like Baltimore, the turf between Anzio and Rome is fairly urbanized, with a few pockets of country found here and there.

Today's ride to Rome

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One thing notable about Anzio is the remains of Roman villas on the seafront north of town, one reputedly owned by Nero. I tried to find these on Google the night before without much luck. However, as we were exiting Anzio to the north, there they were, surrounded by a fence line on our left. We didn't stop but probably would have if we had planned better. I have read they are worth a visit.

From there, north, it was good riding but a lot of traffic. There was one stretch that opened up to the remaining countryside, but as we got closer to Rome, you could see the subdivisions and outlying suburbs of a major metropolitan city such as Rome.

So here are some random pics of the countryside.

A lovely tree line on the crest of a hill.

A country road that our main route crossed paths with.

Another country estate that actually looked abandoned from our vantage point. Or maybe just old and run-down.

Our distance today was only about 42 miles, so we planned to take lunch at the halfway point. We didn't plan this in advance, but the only real restaurant we saw popped up at about MP 21. It was also at the end of a long climb that went on for nearly six miles. And it was one of those climbs that appeared to crest at every turn or every plateau before resuming again. It wasn't overly steep, about 5%-6%, but had some steeper sections. So lunch was well-earned when we arrived.

Lunch at Dal Toscano. Panini with mozzarella, prosciutto, and tomatoes.

After lunch the terrain changed. We had a big descent (of course, after all that climbing) and then a series of hills that were just far apart and long enough to not be rollers. So we did some good work on each climb.

And the character of the road changed as well. We were now within 20 miles or less of Rome centro, and we were seeing more urbanization and wider roads. Clearly we were now on an arterial that carried significant traffic during the workweek (rush hours in and out of Rome). But this was a Saturday, and traffic was almost nonexistent!

The other notable feature was the unfinished widening. Apparently there was a plan to go to four lanes (up from the current two), but it was incomplete, and improvements were very haphazard, as was the lane striping. But it gave us a very wide "shoulder" to ride on.

So at about MP 28, we turned off that road and onto something smaller that, after about four more miles, had us clearly in an urban residential neighborhood. And then we hit our first bike trail! I had done a lot of research on the best way into Rome and was pretty unhappy with my options until I turned to RWGPS' Open Street Map Cycle option and discovered what Rome has done to accommodate cyclists!

This was along the same road but on the opposite side. You can see the design is not consistent, which made it hard to follow.

The trail was well-defined where we picked it up but became a real challenge to follow as we moved into the city. It crossed the road more than once, weaved around parking areas (always hard to define in European cities), frontage roads, and across side streets, sometimes with complicated connections to the mainline. So we were always watching for cars! And forget signage. If we needed to use a crosswalk to pick up the trail on the far side, you needed to be alert! And we did get off-track once, but it became a pleasant experience, and we ended up in a park with a significant trail bridge that reconnected more or less where we needed to be.

Bike trail and bridge to Giardino Lanzarotto Malocello in Rome.

We finally arrived near the core . . .

We then crossed the river (a challenge in itself if you've ever experienced the parallel one-streets that run along either side of the Tiber) and entered the part of the city known as Trastevere. I knew this to be a popular place at night, but a Saturday afternoon was equally challenging.

The pedestrian ways in Trastevere were far more congested than any road.

We were returning to the same hotel we had started from. They had our bike boxes after all! But the roads around Vatican City are tricky, and many go in a direction opposite to our direction of travel (that always seemed to be the case in Italian cities), so I had devised a route to circumnavigate some of it at least. But we had to climb Passeggiata del Gianicolo. And it was worth it!

When I routed this, as in previous situations, I had not expected stairs! There was a roundabout road we could have used, but this was actually a pretty easy effort. At least the stairs were. You can see the hill we climbed to get to them. That was a different story!

A panoramic view of Rome. This picture does not do it justice.

Two happy warriors after attacking our last hill!

This was my third visit to Rome, but I have never climbed this hill. I haven't given Rome the attention I have given Paris — or even London, for that matter. So my sightseeing has been somewhat incidental and usually related to another destination (like this one). But I've seen most of the major attractions and can now check this one off the list!

The descent was spectacular.

Down the Passeggiata del Gianicolo to Vatican City (or pretty close anyway).

From there it was a relatively easy ride to the hotel. Except for those nagging one-way streets. We used sidewalks on the busy ones and just took some roadway on the less busy ones. When in Rome, do as the Romans!

The Vatican is not a significant edifice in my life. It just happened to be the most significant structure near our hotel when we started. So we decided we needed a return pic to commemorate, what else, . . . but our return!

with Mark. Both sound and safe (although some may question the soundness).

The hotel was maybe another 1/2 mile at best . . . and this time we went the correct way down our one-way street (see our Rome to Tivoli day for details!).

Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 543 miles (874 km)

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