ok we are in rome............i know that is a long time since i last got to look into here but ah well whate can you do in a country that likes to have anti terrorism laws on anything going???oh by the way back to english keyboards so i apologise whilst i get used to the old system again......first thing that comes to mind for me is the first hostel we stayed in in italy,ok we guessed to general rule f hostels would follow as they had done in france and all be on hills but when you come to a valley town and see the only hill is right in the middle you think to yourself you have to be kidding me right????but oh no there it is in shining recognition of everything that you dispise about people who decided where things should be like signoposts and hostels it sits not just as a hostel but a pink castle yes im not joking the hostel in finale ligure is a pink castle on top of the hill!!!!!!and not only was it a castle but we had a shrek moment carrying our luggage up to the taller room in the tower which is accessed by the roof so if it had of rained we would have got soaked of and speaking of rain im here in rome only after the biggest terrential downpour that the region has seen in like a year!!!!great and doing about 100 km on a day like this isnt that good.....anyways if you are a keen cyclist i recommend the path across the national park in the mountains just before la spezia in italy.hell of a way up but amazing scenery when you get there....
anyone thinking of going to genoa?????dont its horrible the whole place is like if you got birmingham feel and industrialness and put it in the same place as portsmouth as a port......not nice oh and shove a huge hill to put the hostel on top of and that is pretty much my impression of genoa...
livorno you should miss as wellanother port but if you are lucky you will find shanes customised mongoose cycling top along a road on the way in....it was hot and we didnt have them on and shanes was on the back of his bike and somehow it came off and i didnt see it even cycling behind him but i think it might have been when we were sprinting on our bikes to get to the speed camera that showed your current to see what we could get 37 not too bad for slightly uphill however since then we found another and managed 53 downhill so not bad either......
no major accidents to speak of but i have hit a car not very fun but we were going reaslly slowly so i didnt really hurt myself but was annoyed at the stupid driver pulling out so i ever so politely told him to go away and leave me alone.......no really i didnt swear at him......
freecamping for the first time was great experience our scouting skills didnt evade us and after using hand signals to an old lady she told us that we could stay at the bottom of her field so when we got there it was all seclyuded and a kind of a fire pit had been arranged so we made our own one from tree bark and small twigs no paper!!!!!went really well and after cutting my legs up to saw through a fallen tree with my penknife saw which i dont recommend you doing.....we stayedf warm and kept the bugs off.....however the rolling mist the dying firelight and the spooky noises made fr a very nervous sleep for the ones who dont go straight off like other people....ahem shane ahem.....
night after that was pretty cool as well it was raining and we stopped for lunch to find a rather larger cycling group there as well.after finidng out that one of them was in fact an irish guy we joined them for the meal.....lovely bunch of people who have taken a squat in a old disused factoryy and set up a free cycle repair centre in rome????odd you think so do we but whatever they invited us to a house for the night with promise of food and wine and after alot of umming and arghing we decided to go and see first but as there was no other accomodation avcaliable to us we went for it in the end....and when i say food and wine i mean the food was coming out of and space possible in a kitch the size of my bedroom with a table of 16 sitting down eating at over 50 liters of wine present and i dont mean bad wine this stuff was so tasty you would no believe howeven we only managed 15 litres but i think i had y fair share of the stuff for free im not complaining....the guy whos house it was is an editor of a book company which is quite sucessful but he is really obscure as his books are as well......all in all a fantastic night topped off with a guy and a guitar and a girl with an accordian and tamborine as well as everyone singing untill the early hours a night well worth the effort of pushing our bikes up hills for 2 hrs and im not kidding they were up up up....
if i think of anything else notable i will catch up again soon in the next few days but thats about it for now.....oh shanes foot is a bit better but still bad enough for him to be complaining about though......
ttfn
