If I've learned anything in Italy, it's how to ride in the rain.

Today's forecast was for sunny skies, and patchy showers around. My cycling route must have fell right into those patches. The ride took me through the Umbrian countryside surrounding Orvieto and dipping into Lazio a little further southwest. It started off beautiful and sunny, but at this time of year, weather moves through quickly and one minute you can have blue skies, the next minute black clouds and pouring rain. I left my rain jacket at the hotel today. I figure it was warm enough to get by with just shorts, a jersey, a wool base-layer, and arm warmers. Luckily I was right, otherwise today would have been a bit unpleasant.
My ride basically had two "destinations" today. The first came only fifteen or so miles into the ride but it was the most notable one. Civita de Bagnoregio, an ancient town sitting out of a little "land island". A few people still live there, there are a few restaurants and a hotel or two catering to tourists. There is no way to get there besides this modern foot bridge that you must pay to cross. It's cheap, it helps preserve the town and the bridge which is well worth it. Getting there on a bike is nearly impossible since the foot bridge has some steep stairs so walking in bike shoes was part of the game plan today. The town is like nothing I have ever seen. It should be one of the wonders of the world, but then they'd get too much traffic. The town has been eroding at the edges over time and it's one of the most dramatic things I've ever seen.

Once I left Bagnoregio, it started to drizzle. The further south I went, the wetter the roads were. As I turned west, the rain really started. It wasn't pouring but steady enough. Fine, no problem. The only annoying thing here is that the roads are "tired". They are in decent condition at their best. Not any big potholes but just steadily bad pavement. Luckily traffic was minimal and I could ride down the middle of the road on the smoothest parts when possible. Umbria and Lazio aren't the cyclists' paradise that are Tuscany and Lombardia. The scenery is nice though. If Chianti is the land of grape vines, Umbria is the land of oil trees. There are tons of frantoio here, little olive oil factories. I would normally be really excited about anything olive oil, but seeing as how I don't have the spare weight or space to bring back lots of oil, these oil factories were of little interest to me. One day I'll come back with an empty suitcase for clothes and an empty suitcase for olive oil.
As I ventured further I came upon the gigantic Lake Bolsena. The lake at one point in time was actually a volcano. What must have been an incredibly violent eruption occurred and the volcano blew to bits, forming much of the geographic landscape that makes towns like Orvieto and Bagnoregio so spectacular. By the time I got there, my Garmin had died (must have forgot to charge it after my last ride in Magreglio), it was raining quite hard, the roads were in less than ideal condition and it was quite dark from the rather ominous rain clouds above. This made the lake look quite scary. It's so big and dark and you can really get a feel for the fact that it was a volcano. For some reason it just didn't look at all inviting.
When I got to the town of Bolsena, I stopped for a second under the overhang of a local bank to eat a few biscotti before embarking on the "biggest" climb of the day, back towards Orvieto. There is something that is so great about climbing in the rain. You just feel like such a pro. And the climb was easy. That week of climbing in the Alps has made anything under 7% seem like a walk in the park. I was flying up this climb! A group of hikers were braving the weather and a few of them turned and yelled "Vai, vai, vai" to cheer me on. That's always encouraging.
Luckily, this climb and the final descent back to the edge of Orveito were freshly paved, which was very welcome. As I approached Orvieto, the view of the town from a few kilometers out was remarkable. The town is small, but when you can the whole panorama of it from a distance, it looks so much larger, the tower and the Duomo look so much more prominent. It's a view of the town that I'm sure a lot of tourists don't get, and I am so fortunate for the bicycle, as it affords me the unique opportunity to really see this place. Unfortunately, in stopping for a photo, I then got stuck behind some camper all the way down to the base of the town. You're wearing out my brake pads people!!

As I climbed back up to the center of town, the sun comes out. Of course! The problem with riding in the rain, although it makes you feel epic, is that you get dirty, your cloths pick up every grit from the road, and the bike gets filthy. It's easy enough to clean the bike at home in the bike stand, but without that, a few hours were spent post-ride cleaning the bike, rinsing the filth from my clothes and hanging them to dry out my hotel window, and stuffing crumpled-up Gazzetta dello Sport in my cycling shoes, with hopes that it would help them dry for another ride tomorrow.
And, chances are I'll get wet again tomorrow. It's just that time of year. Whether it rains for five minutes or five hours, it doesn't matter. Once you're wet, you're wet. Tomorrow, I hope to get in a metric century with some better climbing. Today was too flat. I also think ridewithgps is lying to me. If today's ride had 5000 ft of climbing in 50 miles that I must be in phenomenal shape. I guess we'll see on Sunday at the Campagnolo Roma Granfondo. If I climb like a champ, I can say, "oh, well, I was training in the Alps last week so... haha". If I ride like crap than I know I ate way too much gelato.