Formia to Sessa Aurunca – 10th June
Distance: 23.8 km – Elevation +180 m -200 m
Weather: Sunny. Temperature: High 35 degrees
What a day. First I had an almost sleepless night. My B&B was right above the main street of Formia and Italy comes to life between the hours of 9 pm and midnight – so lots of street noise including revving motorbikes and an operatic tenor serenading customers in the cafe across the road. After eventually falling asleep in the early hours I was awoken at 4.00 am by the street cleaners.
I had decided to try and make up the day I had lost in the mountains by combining two stages into one by using state roads rather than the hilly country route – 30 kilometres instead of 40. I set off just after 6 am and made surprisingly good progress – 9 kilometres in the first two hours. But then my legs just didn’t want to continue, everything about me felt heavy – and for the rest of the day, I had to just forcè one step in front of the other as it got progressively hotter and hotter with frequent stops and gallons of water. Around 2.00 pm after 24 kilometres I stopped at a roadside cafe and decided I couldn’t go any further and started to look for somewhere to stay – surprisingly Google said there was a B&B 100 yards away but it wasn’t where it was supposed to be – I asked this wonderful family who ran a nearby cafe – they rang the B&B and arranged for Angelo the owner to come and pick me up – 10 mins later Angelo arrived on a motorbike – and for the very first time in my life I rode pillion on a motorbike complete with rucksack holding on for dear life as Angelo roared off. But it is a wonderful B&B deep in the countryside and Angelo was very attentive to detail arranging for a local restaurant to bring a meal to the B&B to save me having to walk – and guess what it had a bath! what a treat.
