Sunday, 19 July. To get our tour back on track, we needed to move faster. Sitting in Trapani on the extreme western end of Sicily, we saw that the only way to take a train to the east coast involved going back to Palermo and skipping the three-star Greek temples on the south coast. So we took the train as far south as it would go: to Castelvetrano. From there, we made our way through town and down a well-paved provincial road to the ancient Greek city of Seliunte on the coast. Continue reading →

On Tuesday (14 July), we rode to Palermo. At first, we enjoyed the Madonie Mountains to the south. Then the road became rather uninteresting, as one industrial suburb followed another. We probably should have jumped on a train, but by the time we realized that, we had passed the last station before the capital. Nevertheless, we were both glad to ride into this amazing city. I had always wanted to visit Palermo, and Cheryl was looking forward to showing me some of its beautiful sights. Continue reading →

Many firsts happened in 260 BC in Milazzo (Mylae). Here the Romans won their first naval victory after inventing the corvus. Gaus Duilius turned the tide in the First Punic War here, then raced to relieve the siege of Segesta by the Carthaginian general Hamilcar. My boyhood imagination woke up reading the Wikipedia account, its dry prose bringing back the excitement I felt reading my fifth-grade history book. Continue reading →

On Friday (3 July 2015), we rolled 64 km through Basilicata and Calabria, but I thought that we were still heading for Reggio Calabria and around the toe. We would not spend too much of July in the far south. The days, while hot and sunny, had not really changed much from Rome. Continue reading →

(Tuesday, 30 June 2015). The train took us from Salerno to the next bucket list stop: Paestum. Cheryl had toured the site, but I had not, though I had wanted to since my teen years. The marvel of these ancient Greek temples and towns stunned me. I could not even picture them with their decorative façades and liturgical accoutrements in place. The sheer size of the pieces made me wonder how the ancient Greeks could build so many massive structures in so many places. Before the tour was over, I would learn how. Continue reading →

Gaeta

The first full day in Gaeta, Cheryl hiked through the historic center and up to the top of the Monte Orlando with her camera. There is a large park there, with the tomb of Lucius Mugnacius Planco (22 BCE) and Bourbon fortifications. The Montagna Spaccata, where St. Benedict was a hermit for three years, is reputed to have split when Christ died on the cross. I wasn’t there when it happened, but it is an impressive crack in the rock.  Continue reading →

Anzio

(Saturday, 21 June) Finding the port of Anzio from the train station was easy: just coast downhill. The shadows were getting long when we reached the ferry port in Anzio on our bicycles.The hydrofoil crew carried the bikes aboard, and we shoved off with about a ¾ passenger load.  Continue reading →

The road leads ever on…

If there is one lesson I have learned this summer, it is that extended bicycle touring does not lend itself to blogging the way I was doing it. I had to make a choice: either I could focus on writing and uploading my articles , or I could focus on the trip itself. Opting for the latter, I took notes and pictures like a traditional travel writer, with an eye to writing it up afterward. Not being able to work has been compensated by the incredible beauty and stunning impact of the places that we have seen. I hope to share some of that with you over the next few weeks. Continue reading →