While this morning's goal of cycling to Perugia seemed no less ambitious than yesterday's trip, it turned out to be an exercise in going with the proverbial flow. Took quite a while to orient on my large scale map but with some help from the locals, I found myself crossing over into rockin' Umbria. Castiglione del Lago on Lake Trasimeno is lovely and large but smelled not unlike a hairy mans 3 day b.o. in a heat wave. Blechhhh...
I lucked out and spotted a bike path that runs the entire circumference of the lake. Hopped on and swung half way around the lake to Passignano sul Trasimeno. Ran into some lovely Dutch cyclists who strongly advised me to forego my Perugia cycling plans as they'd tried the 25 km mountain road and described it as nothing less than a death wish. The train schedule didnt really work for me either so I figured it simply wasnt meant to be. Anyway, there were some menacing clouds gathering in the distance over my return road, so I began the long trek home.
I was only an hour into it when I suddenly felt deflated. Well, not me really but my tire. Luckily I had my patch kit. Not so luckily, I didn't have a pump. I couldn't have been considering the sitch more than a minute when right on queue, along came some cyclists with - you guessed it - a pump! The flat was fixed lickety split but in so doing id messed up the front brake. My saviours couldn't helpt me with this as they had no told but the moment they left, a lovely signora came along and suggested I walk to the 3rd farm house where her husband would help me. I took her up on her offer and pretty soon the brake was good as new.
While in the mans workshop, I was blown away by the shelves and shelves of homemade wine, preserved tomatoes and pasta sauce. Signore proudly posed before his stash as I snapped a pic. Before parting ways, he offered me a healthy hit of his moonshine. Tasted like a smooth port, went down quite nicely, yummm. The remaining ride into Camucia was a breeze...and a laugh!
Whats this? A traffic jam on a Monday afternoon in sleepy Camucia? I guess Monday is market day but doesn't anyone work around here?
By the time I hit the road, the menacing clouds began to spit and the skies started rumbling. Hightailed it back as quickly as I could to keep warm as Id left my rain gear home that morning. But the serious rain held off until just after I got inside the villas gate. If you think about it, my luck today has been quite astonishing. Chalk one up for positive vibes and going with the flow.
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