57.5 miles ridden – 443m climbed – temperature 28C.

After leaving last night’s very nice hotel our first few miles were along relatively quiet roads before we joined the much busier SS7 main route. The road surface was ok and the drivers generally respectful but the busier roads are not pleasant so it was a relief to turn off onto a quiet, poorly surfaced track that ran alongside a railway line for about 6 or 7 miles.

It is well-understood that Italians are a very passionate nation and it has become apparent over these last few days that this passion extends to flytipping! Rubbish is dumped almost everywhere – even next to bins. There is actually so much of it in so many locations it’s hard to/imagine how it would ever be possible to clear it up.

Folk have come out of their way to dump this stuff – very sad. But enough of that.

About halfway through todays route we left the coastal route and headed inland to avoid a section where the route twists and turns around the cliffs and waters edge with tunnels and blind turns and her we had our only climb of the day – not steep but long – over a hilly peninsula and down via the industrial town of Itri to rejoin the coast at Formia which was a busy resort town.

With about 14 miles left to go we finally joined a quiet coastal road which passed through residential areas and a national park in which there were all sorts of campsites, bed and breakfasts, and quirky houses which lead to Baia Domizia. As fabulous as our hotel is – Cumeja Beach Club and Hotel – we cycled passed numerous deserted resorts which reminded me of a documentary I have seen about the deserted tourist resorts in North Korea. Weird!

There were four of us cycling together today which was really nice. It was a good days cycling and we arrived at our hotel around 2:30 which meant we missed the worst heat of the day.

Tomorrow we cycle to Pompeii.