{"id":7095,"date":"2012-07-28T20:47:02","date_gmt":"2012-07-29T00:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=7095"},"modified":"2015-07-02T15:16:16","modified_gmt":"2015-07-02T19:16:16","slug":"day-63-saturday-july-28-orbetello-to-civitavecchia-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=7095","title":{"rendered":"Day 63, Saturday, July 28 – Orbetello to Civitavecchia, Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A deep breath and off we go!<\/p>\n

We had aggressive riding conditions today. \u00a0Not that we had hard climbs (mostly flat), but the first half of our ride was on the ‘soon to be’ autostrada; fast speeds and no shoulder.\"\"<\/a>Luckily, being Saturday and in the morning, the traffic was not heavy in our direction<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So in between the cars flying by, we enjoyed the rolling countryside \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and fields filled with grapes.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was a hot day though, 100 degrees by ten o’clock. \u00a0About 10:30, we stopped for a break from the sun and heat to enjoy chocolate stuffed croissants, cappuccino and ice cold water. \u00a0During our short sugar break, we had gained cloud cover \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

which cooled the morning to a crisp 90 degrees, but the wind had gained momentum, today was just not going to be easy.<\/p>\n

After 26 miles, we finally reached the road that would take us off the highway. \u00a0It was a small country road in desperate need of paving, \"\"<\/a>but it offered relief from the traffic and occasional spots of shade. \"\"<\/a> But there was no relief from the wind that had turned quite fierce. \u00a0We fought to keep our bikes upright and moving forward. \u00a0Little did we know (or think) that this road would offer no<\/strong> refreshment stops. \u00a0We saw a lot of farms\"\"<\/a> filled with watermelons,\"\"<\/a>fruit trees,\"\"<\/a> lots of Roma tomatoes\"\"<\/a>and a few nice estates,\"\"<\/a> but no water, so for an hour and a half we pushed against the wind and struggled in the heat (cloud cover only lasted a very short time). \u00a0 Just before 1:00 we found our oasis of food and drink and relaxed from the stress of our forty miles.<\/p>\n

But we weren’t there yet! \u00a0We biked through the town of Civitavecchia (our hotel was just<\/em> outside of town)\"\"<\/a> which became popular in the later 1800’s as a beach destination for weekend tourists from Rome. \u00a0This is what remains of one of their paths to the sea.\"\"<\/a>Today they offer a boardwalk \"\"<\/a>and the “Unconditional Surrender” Monument that we’ve also seen in San Diego and somewhere in Florida (cannot find any facts on why it is here).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As we checked into our hotel after 47 miles the wind had died completely. \u00a0 But that was okay, we were ready for a shower and a little air conditioning. \u00a0Too tired to go anywhere else, we dined on the terrace of our hotel. \u00a0A plentiful cesar salad (preparing ourselves for Rome)\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and Frutti de Mare pasta\"\"<\/a>should fuel us enough to get us into Rome tomorrow.\n\t\t