The Godfather tour…

Nealy 6 months after we returned from our Reverse Camino tour with an injured Linda, we are off again.  The recovery of the knee has progressed well, it just takes longer when your not as young as you once were!  We have been able to cycle since we returned but nothing too strenuous….Yet!

But now Linda feels that she’s fully fit once more so we are off…to the home of the Italian Mafia, which, to be fair will be a hellofalot safer than the USA at the moment even if they hadn’t just arrested the head of the Mafia here!

We always feel unfit when we set off, but yesterday when we dropped the bags in with the 20 something year old lady at left luggage she was completely out of breath just lifting one on to a knee high shelf.  I did the other for her!  So maybe we aren’t as unfit as we think!

We are not morning people and Linda’s not a night person either. I think she’s probably just a cat on a human reincarnation. Anyway, our flight left at 6am from Luton and so we journeyed down to the airport the day before and got up at ridiculous O’clock to walk to the airport and retrieve Tilly and our bags from the left luggage for a sleepy check in.

Our airline, Easyjet, are great for bikes. They don’t have any dimensional restrictions and a weight limit that’s generous too at 32kg. So we checked in and zombied our way through security. You can now buy fast pass tickets to skip the plebs at check in, through security and to board the plane first if you want, but Tilly never fits in the Disneyland queuing barriers for normal check in so we always bypass everyone anyway and get to the front via staff moving barriers to fit us through with our overloaded trolley! Result.

It’s an easy process at check in, you weigh your own bags, label them and use your boarding pass to print everything. No staff involved. I half expected to get to have a go at flying the plane whilst Linda made the coffee…

Security was smooth and quick and when we got to our gate we found Linda’s boarding pass had priority boarding on it and mine didn’t.  The staff sent us both to the front of the priority queue!  No idea how Linda got the priority ticket.. It wasn’t on our purchase.. ????

After a smooth flight, the plane came in over the sea and with low cloud at times.. you could see mountain tops poking out of them, errr… Why are we coming here?  But shortly before landing the skies cleared enough to see the landscape properly and we definitely thought why are we coming here!  It’s very mountainous and as you may know, we are hill/mountain averse!

We landed mid morning to rain. Not what we’d planned. And a cool, 12C – again not on the plans, and then had to reassemble Tilly and cycle to our hotel where we planned not to be afternoon people either.

But, as is usual with our flights we had a puncture immediately.  I’d let the air out of the rear tyre and not the front, as Tilly was slightly too tall for her packing box so with no air she just squeezed in. Obviously it was the rear tyre that had the puncture, so after reassembling Tilly we had to disassemble her to change the tube.  All to an ever changing audience of appreciative Italians, photos and bravos comments – the normal reception at an airport. We really should put a hat down…

On the bright side the puncture meant that by the time we set off the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to say hello.

The roads, however, were like streams and the drivers like crocodiles snapping at our pedals. Impatient, too fast and far too close to us. We stopped early on and stuck our flag pole out sideways which baffled them!  It seems they don’t mind knocking us off, but get much more cautious if they think they may scratch their paint work from our flag pole!  Again, no idea why, their cars were quite often bashed and dented anyway. Maybe an impact with Tilly would be the final straw and the car would collapse.

The ride itself was a mixed bag. Leaving aside the huge piles of rubbish eveywhere, the coast was at times gorgeous, with dark threatening clouds, sunshine peering through and the towering mountains looming into the sea. And not a tourist in site, nor a cyclist either.

So, we’ve arrived and are ensconced in our first hotel about to go out and find some food. The manager didn’t fancy our chances being vegetarian!  But this is Italy, surely there’s a pizza or pasta somewhere!