Baia Domizia to Sabaudia

September 24, 2015

Another beautiful day in Italy!

The view from our hotel balcony this beautiful morning. Why go home?

It rained pretty hard last night. We had serious thunderstorms and lost power in our hotel room for maybe 30 minutes. I guess that is what made for the spectacular morning . . . and it seemed to last all day as well. We started out of Baia Domizia on fairly quiet roads with hardly a car on them. And this lasted far longer than I had expected.

Today's ride to Sabaudia

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The road out of Baia Domizia — quiet and car-free for the most part and lined with a type of bamboo (we think).

Not that I'm complaining. We enjoyed it immensely. One quiet road led to the next. And the next thing we knew, we were at the beach.

And what a lovely beach it was, with a nice promenade and lots of activity. We made immediate use of the promenade, not because of traffic but because it was so nice.

As we made our way further into town, I spied this old factory juxtaposed against the mountains beyond with their peaks lost in the clouds. The terrain here is amazing on many levels, and of course you feel it every day when cycling. What I find particularly amazing is the way the mountains sometimes just seem to shoot up out of the ground. Back home we have a gradual increase in elevation and rolling terrain leading to such an explosion. Here, they just seem to appear.

Abandoned factory not far from the beachfront in Minturno.

And behind me was another beauty. Gaeta in the distance.

Gaeta sits on the tip of this spit of land.

On our way to Gaeta, we made a look back at Minturno and the terrain we had covered. We had to do a little climb to get out of Minturno, but the routing was set up to keep us close to the shore and off the main highways. So if you look at the mapping, you'll see we dodged in and out from the main highway pretty frequently. It added to the miles but also added to the viewing pleasure (and yes, climbing pleasure, as Mark and I like to climb).

One last glance at Minturno. We circumvented that large peak, which is a regional park, when we climbed out of Minturno to the mainline for a short distance.

After Gaeta, we had a short, flat stretch and then some climbing to reach the main road through the mountains along the coast. This terrain is rugged, and even the Romans had difficulty "conquering" it, as access was limited. Our modern-day Romans, however, have successfully bored four tunnels through these mountains, but we needed to be on the main highway through these parts to access them!

And we were prepared. None was longer than four-tenths of a mile long, and we had our light systems fully charged. Mark's was mounted low, so he took the rear position; mine is helmet-mounted and higher, so I took the lead. That way we maximized visibility.

The other thing we noted was the drop in traffic volumes. While there was a notable number of trucks, none passed us in the tunnels. And there was no horn blowing either. Italians are great!

Our first tunnel. Note the long approach (supported on a bridge) and the open windows facing the sea. After that section it became fully enclosed.

The exit side of the second tunnel. The first and second were so close together that we didn't stop to look around!

The view looking forward after the third tunnel. If you look closely, you can see the fourth tunnel in the distance. The town even further in the picture is Sperlonga. We ate lunch between the fourth tunnel exit and the climb into Sperlonga.

After we cleared the last tunnel, we had to cross the valley to Sperlonga. We again got off the main highway and descended to "beach" level, where we discovered a nice bike trail into town and decided to eat under the shade of one of the trees.

Waiting for lunch. The fence had enough give to provide a nice backrest.

And lunch. A panini with mozzarella, tomato, and basil leaves.

It was a short but steep climb into Sperlonga with lots of confusing signs indicating no pedestrians and no bicycles under threat of fine. We sort of ignored these, of course. My only concern was the road not be blocked! And it wasn't.

Looking back on the valley we just climbed out of. If you look closely, you can see the bike trail that carried us part of the way and provided a venue for lunch!

Sperlonga eliminated two-way traffic and installed a bike lane. Good for them!

As we rode along the coastline on what was now a long, sweeping curve, we continued to be impressed with the viewsheds!

And another from Terracina (or probably beyond) looking back.

We continued our way through the local beach towns, with Terracina being one of the notable ones, and crossed behind the Parco Nazionale del Circeo to Sabaudia. The ride through the outer edges of the park was gentle and well shaded. The far end of this passage met with what was essentially a beach road with the ocean on our left and a large inland lake on our right. This made for a rather grand entrance into Sabaudia.

The bridge into Sabaudia — which includes a bike lane!

The view to our right looking at the inland lake and the Parco Nazionale del Circeo in the distance.

We finally arrived at our hotel, a cute place run by a French woman married to an Italian. She misses Paris. But they had passable croissants.

Our home for the night. We have a short day tomorrow and will sleep in!

Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km)
Total: 472 miles (760 km)

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