Fantastic pictures! Really enjoying your trip! Intrigued that you feel safer on Italian roads…we felt quite unsafe in the summer!
Thanks - glad you like them! I've just posted another dozen or so, not least to see if I could use the gallery function. It worked!
Have to say there have been times in recent days my earlier confidence in Italian driving has taken a bit of a hit. Yesterday ended with a truly horrible climb out of the city of La Spezia on a narrow concrete-barricaded road with heavy goods traffic thundering past within inches. To be fair it was hard to see what alternative they had: busy road, long uphill, can't really expect busy city traffic to slow to a crawl for ten minutes just for a couple of hapless tourists. Still, not nice.
Looking forward to more of your adventures. Are you going south of Rome this time?
Plan A is still to end up in Naples, but we have three weeks, or more, or less, so who knows? Watch this space!
I recall venturing off dedicated cycling paths in Italy (September time) and being incredibly frustrated by Italian drivers and feeling very unsafe - until I realised that their constant beeping was actually a friendly warning. I adjusted to the roads but the towns were another matter! I felt like I had a target on my back.
I also wonder if timing has something to do with it and the proportion of tourists around. Certainly, my most unpleasant experiences in Spain all involve peak tourism time. Tired, stressed drivers unfamiliar with the roads (and possibly what they are driving) can all combine to make us feel vulnerable and uncomfortable. The most dangerous part of my commute (in NL) was across a junction that led to an amusement park. For most of the summer I needed to be extra vigilant for British registered cars who didn't understand that I had the right of way.
Fear is a funny thing, though. I've always felt hyper sensitive when riding with a partner and have often thought "I'd hate to be riding here with someone because of dogs, traffic, whatever", yet when I talk to couples who travel together it hardly features in their thinking.
Yes, I think it certainly helps being out of season. Don't think I'd want to be here in August. And you're right - thinking about it I don't think I'd want to do it with my wife. I'm not worried about Jens - he's 100% Viking and more than capable of looking out for himself!
Pic from earlier today - we've left the coast for the hills of Tuscany. Just bonkers beautiful.