Cycling “The Wolf’s Lair” in Italy
A week of bikepacking "The Wolf's Lair" in Italy to celebrate a friend's 60th birthday? YES! Do I know where the Abruzzo region of Italy is, or who are the other 3 Rugged Men I'll be sharing meals and beds with, or how to say "Flat Tire" in Italian, or how to ride a bike down steep rocky paths? No!
Retirement is just a way of shouting a barbaric YES! from the rooftops of the world, then finding out what it means later. In this case, it meant a week of freedom to explore Italy's backroads, small medieval villages, delicious regional cuisine, strong thighs and sore wrists. Three new friends who are delightfully open to life and adventure and welcoming an odd new wonder-wanderer into the fold, and a very happy old OLD (60!) friend we were all honoured to celebrate.
The Roads and Landscape
The rocky treeless openness I shared in Day One's photos slowly transitioned into lush forest, rich vineyard wine country, and 10km long straight uphills or wild downhills.
We varied between single-track gravel paths, rocky roads across open pastureland, thick mud that literally bound our wheels and sent me flying over the top of the handlebars a few times, and quiet blissfully paved roads. Cycling gravel is truly a different beast than the long road rides I grew up with - a 50 kilometer day of bumping and bouncing down Italy's hills was just as gruelling as a 100 miles across Iowa's flat farmlands. Uphill requires a steady pressure on the tires to not spin out, while downhill requires nerves of steel to let go and cruise fast enough to bounce over the ruts while constantly navigating a steady path - I'm not sure my experienced mates appreciated just how scary it was for this gravel newbie. Good to have a new cycling skill challenge at age 57!
Rural Italian Villages
Italians love hills. I don't want to claim to be an expert on all things Italian, but I feel safe about this one. Almost every small or large village we passed through was carved into the steepest of hillsides. Church and often fortress at the top, more churches and plazas scattered about, and steep winding staircases and walkways servicing all the flats (no place for cars usually). No wonder they eat so much pasta - it gets burned off just going home!
Italian Food
It just kept being delicious. Pasta cooked Just Right - usually more al dente than I'm used to - with thick rich sauces, venison, the best bacon morsel of my life. Gnochi, pasta of all shapes and sizes, pizza. Minced sheep innards. And of course my colleagues enjoyed endless variety of top class wine, beer and cappucinos.
Some days we'd order sandwiches from the local meat & cheese shops - they'd take 20-30 minutes to prepare, but well worth the wait. Outside major cities there were no supermarkets - you go to the meat and cheese shop, the fruit shop, the vegetable shop, the wine shop, and of course the boulangerie for baguettes and pastries. Slow food, fresh, local, shopped daily and usually on foot - this is as much a part of the culinary culture as the cooking and eating.
Italian People, Language, Culture
The nature of a bikepacking trip is you get to smile and wave at a lot of people, but not get into too many deep conversations. Especially in rural Italy without Italian language skills. I did work hard to learn the basics, and LOVE the way it rolls off the tongue so much more smoothly than French or even Spanish.
People seemed genuinely friendly. Greetings were enthusiastic, like they really wanted us to have a BUON JUORNO (good day), not just mouthing it out of courtesy. People made eye contact with us. And with each other, there was a sense of community and commaraderie I did not witness much in Cuba or Minnesota - a mix of small-town interconnectedness and a culture of enthusiasm and connection. I'm well aware that I'm romanticizing and generalizing based on an incredibly small sample size, but it felt like people have time for life and for each other.
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Currently in...
Philadelphia
Heading to...
Costa Rica (Monteverde) till Christmas, then Thailand (Chiang Mai), Vietnam (Hoi Ann, Feb-Mar). Please share any sites, people or ideas by email.
Awesome post which capture very well the wonderful time this was!
Loved the way you painted and reflected on your trip. Your 60yr old friend must be amazing!
He sure is! Well, after day two he was…
Wonderful. Cheers!