Day 52 Sorrento - 19.9.05 

History!! Daniel's first self arousal. This is the first occasion on the tour where I haven't had to spend 10 minutes waking Daniel. He just woke up early and was ready to go. We will need him out on the town late at night with his sister more often. This means there is time to ride the Amalfi. As we rode out of Sorrento, It seemed we couldn't get out of the bottom gear. This had something to do with the steep climb. We did a brisk 400m climb and then came over the top of the peninsula to see the fun begin.

From now, the views become increasingly addictive and enticing. The road was etched into a cliff face over the water and we saw people stopping at every stopping point (every 200 meters) to take photos and admire. We found the ride much safer than people had warned. When the rain hit, we pulled into a tiny deli for the best meat and cheese roll you can imagine. It was great fun to watch the many traffic officers armed with whistle and red paddle, helping buses and trucks squeeze past each other on a road that was really too narrow for the purpose.

To catch up with our lost schedule, we then took a train to Brindisi, spending 21 hours of chaos in the Italian rail system (system?) only to be dropped off at the wrong station to ride the last 60km. It was fitting that we rode into Brindisi on the Via Apia as this was the road we left Rome on. I found the history of the road - oldest in Italy, built to take Roman troops to port to attack Greece - interesting as it is our assault path for Greece.

The errupting thunder and rain gave our exit from Italy an additional crescendo and as we sat in a lovely cafe listening to Italian romance songs, we had a chance to review the Italian stage of our tour in a more favourable light than a few hours earlier, brawling with railway officials with attitude problems.

Stats Dist 105 Km, Average 18km/hr, Max 40km/hr, Climb 950m 

  Email John at John@CycleOdyssey.com.au
 

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