September 10, 2015
Rome to Tivoli
Rome is not the city to fear! Of course, all of my friends (particularly the non-biking sort) were concerned I was starting our tour in Rome. I had done this once before but had headed east from a hotel on the eastern edge of the city. Today's ride would take us across the central core and past many of the more popular tourist points! But I had routed us about as carefully as I could and decided this could not be any worse than my hometown. And in some respects, it was better!
Our hotel was located on a one-way street inconveniently going in the wrong direction! The cab from the airport had used the route we were now being directed to, but having wandered around a bit yesterday, we decided two blocks in the wrong direction would be easy enough.
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The rough part was the cobblestones. And the few cars coming our way did not seem bothered in the least by our presence! In my opinion, the Italians are actually good drivers, and over the course of the day, deferred to us repeatedly.
So in quick succession, we hit three notable sights:
Somewhere along the way we lost our bearings on our Garmins, partly I think because the OSM is just too busy, and in an urban environment it requires very close attention. And in Rome, my attention is on what is going on around me! Regardless, I knew the city well enough to wing it, and when I saw the steps to the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, I made a beeline for it. That put us close to the forum where we easily recovered our route. Mark was adventurous enough to have his Garmin set to offer recalculated routes, a feature I am leery of, but it suited us this go 'round!
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So riding down the Via dei Fori Imperiali was a real treat. With literally no traffic to speak of. Except buses, of course. That took us to the Colosseum, and from there, we routed through the Parco Del Colle Oppio and some residential neighborhoods, and all of a sudden, we were south of the train station!
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So actually, all of that was the easy part. We were now on a main arterial route out of town, SP49a, otherwise known as Via Prenestina. It is not a "bad" road but not a "good" one either, but it will get you out of town and across the circumferential roads that you have to navigate over. And typically, there are limited options. At least Via Prenestina is wide with plenty of shoulder to ride on. And this is where we heard our first and last horn blow as we waited patiently in a right turn lane, which got a turn arrow before the through traffic did . . . and we were going through. No big deal.
Just a fair warning: parts of this route narrow as you get further from Rome central and are heavily congested to the point where we made better time than the locals. We were treated very well, all things considered, and made good time to our first major turn for Tivoli at MP 13.5 (which, BTW, has the same road name and number). Traffic dropped significantly, and the setting became more rural, and we could see our goal in the distance . . . the mountains!
The ride into Tivoli is quite the treat if you like to climb, as Mark and I do. We only did maybe 1500 feet today, but I imagine most of it was in the last several miles. With more than one switchback. But if you're going to tour Italy, you are going to have to climb to get to the better parts!
Our hotel (a B&B) would not be ready till 3:00 or so. We arrived at 1:30, hungry, locked our bikes in the stairwell, and made a quick change of clothes before heading to get some eats!
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Today's ride: 23 miles (37 km)
Total: 23 miles (37 km)
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