48 miles ridden – 1004m climbed – Temperature 30C.

The first four miles were an assault course of potholes, closed roads, buses, school drop-offs and impatient drivers as we made our way out of Pompeii towards todays big climb.

There weren’t any especially steep sections although it was all Red on the Garmin climb profile just 10 miles of pretty much constant hill as we passed through Gragnano, Franche, and Pimonte towards the peak. The road was either stony silent or heaving as a truck would pass with 8 or 10 cars behind it. The sun was hot which made the shaded sections extremely precious and the one half mile section of flat about to thirds up felt like a lottery win. The view from the top looking back at where we had come from was amazing.

Then we got another win – a 916m tunnel which was cool, quiet and surprisingly slightly up hill but we came out into beautiful sunshine and the major climb was over. We stopped for a coffee/caffeine/pastry break in Pianillo before a long sweeping 8 mile descent into Amalfi. The view from the top was stunning.

It was quite a technical descent because of the switch backs, blind corners and traffic coming at us from both directions – overall glorious but we had to keep our wits about us.

There were plenty of wonderful vistas along the way.

There were however some disappointments. Most of us were hoping for a nice stop in Amalfi itself but it was absolutely heaving with tourist buses and boats and the traffic was horrific. Frankly Amalfi itself was unpleasant. Comparing notes with the others here at the hotel in Megazzeno it transpires pretty much everyone felt the same and carried on along the coast road with two more smaller Red climbs through Maiori and Cetara which looked pleasant enough but were not attractive stopping places.

By the time we hit Vietri Sul Mare we were on the outskirts of Salerno so we hoped for somewhere nice to stop there but no – although Salerno looked a bit like Cannes it is much more commercial/industrial so we carried on to our final destination which was well worth it.

Megazzeno feels like a small, quiet, somewhat windswept resort and after the last few days of hills it’s nice to be in a big wide open panorama.

This picture shows a massive section of the coast we followed and the range of hills we left behind. There will be more…….