Stage Seven: Rome to Benevento

All the Italians I've encountered have been warm, generous, fun and helpful. It's been emotional. Just don't bother asking teenage boys for directions. They have no idea where they are in relation to anywhere else, think 30km is a long way on a bicycle, that trans-continental cycling means catching the train and they don't stop eating long enough to finish a sentence.

Benevento turned out to realy quite modern and stylish for the most part with some quaint features tucked away, and then it was back to more mountains!

But the weather took a turn for the worse and, as several places in Italy experienced disasterous flooding, I discovered that spending 36 hours stuck in a tent listening to the deafing sound of thunderstorms and torrential rain on the flysheet can make one become just a little psychotic.

The road edged ever closer to the mountains to the East and I could sense more climbs afoot!

Following the ancient Via Catilina out of Rome I headed South-East which was a good road and, thanks to the parallel autostrada, almost devoid of trucks. I even managed to bump into my cousin's business advisor (!) who was re-tracing the steps of St. Paul from Rome to Jerusalem via Albania, Macedonia, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon etc. on foot after starting in Limoges in central France. To say he and his companion were staggeringly tired would be an understatement. I'm sure St Paul would have carried his baggage on a donkey and not 17kgs on his back!

I had a fabulous day out at the Chestnut Fair in Segni with the Natalini family, went to my first Latin Mass, got hauled up on stage with a brass band and introduced to the crowd as the cycling here from England, got fed stupid, introduced to Limoncello - a 34% lemon liqueur and shown the right way to open a chestnut. Sadly I stupidly forgot my camera but pics may yet reach me by email.

Here's the original map of this stage, although the route this time was a little different as didn't drop down to the coast at Anzio due to bad weather in the mountains and in order to take a rest day with a contact in Colleferro.