In Which I Reach My Destination!

After two more days of riding, I arrived at my destination: an international writers’ retreat in the countryside outside of San Severino, Italy, on Day 5 of this biking adventure. I will now stay here for two weeks to work on my book.

Day 4 was a long day of riding, from Visso to San Severino. The weather was gorgeous. I was feeling great. To be honest, I felt great during this entire excursion.

Sometimes I felt tired-great. Sometimes soaking wet-great, as there was some rain early on. And sometimes I could kill a hotdog with ketchup on a toasted bun right now- great.

But overall, I felt great. Because I am quite happy to be tearing along on a bicycle, regardless of weather or anything else. I like to appreciate nature and take in the sights. And Day 4 – Visso to San Severino offered quite a few chances to appreciate nature and take in the sights.

There was a steep climb in the middle, which I walked a lot of, thus giving me extra time to appreciate the rolling green hills of Vernaccia Nera grape vines, the fruit of which makes celebrated local wines.

This is an internet picture of young grape vines in Italy. If you squint and shake your head in one direction while looking at it, that approximates the picture I would surely have taken from my bicycle.

There was time to wonder who lives atop these precipitous locations:

There was time to inhale the earthy scent of sun-warmed sage and rosemary, and admire some stunning architecture and engineering:

There was time to gaze up at this incredible sight:

So much time, actually, that I missed the traffic light guiding cars around some up-coming road work, and I had an interminable wait, with one leg on the pavement holding up all the bike weight, for the light to change to green so I could launch myself into motion once again.

The whole ride was spectacular.

It was just a perfect day to be outdoors.

But I was also feeling some intense degrees of excitement and anticipation, because each kilo-inch was bringing me closer to my destination.

I was starting to experience some extremely strong kilo-inchipation.

And San Severino was beginning to come into view below!

The place I’d talked about, read about, thought about, studied maps of, obtained a bike for, modified a bike for, trained for, and rode towards for 4 days and 100+ miles, was now just a glide away.

The actual expectipation of this moment was stupendible, matched only by the pure deliriation of approachipending arrivalkation.

And then, this! I am so happy in this picture!

San Severino turned out to be a more gorgeous town than I had imagined. Tiny cobbled streets lined with venerable houses and courtyards in deeply textured stone and wood.

I was grateful to have had the best of traveling companions for the entire trip. I said ciao to Carlo and Giulia the next morning, as they biked off for some more touring, and then a train back to Rome in the afternoon.

They may be nutballs, but they are nutballs with incredible leg muscles.

Then I started on the last part of my journey, out of San Severino and into the hills of Pitino to find my writers’ retreat location, along some streets, down some highway, around a few roundabouts, along a bit of bike path, on a country road, on another country road, up a long climb, down a hill, up a hill, and down a half-mile of gravel road to the gates …

At the very end of a memorable, spectacular, and grand adventure, it is always a good idea to have another adventure lined up.