Day 14: Montemiletto to Montella –

53 km (33 miles) – Total so far: 911 km (566 miles)

Shorter day – but lots of climbs and drops.

Again stumbled across tremendous accommodation – an Albergo in Montella, at 30 euros a night, has a pool also. Amazes me that no tourists are here – its 37 C now at 16:00 hrs, but will drop to early 20s tonight.

10 km off-road, up and down this morning good fun.

Here in the south there is nobody around at all between 14:00 and 18:00 hrs. Similar to Spain, but I can’t remember such an absence of people. Stark difference from the north. Then at 18:00 everyone is out, wandering around, sitting in fares and talking, riding scooters noisily. It’s not the only difference – prices are hugely different – bottle of Peroni 1 euro, you could pay 4 times that amount in he towns in Tuscany. Restaurants in average half the price as are the Pensions. Really there’s no difference in the heat – perhaps a little more intense here, and 2 degrees warmer in average.

High speed was 48.1 km/hr on road that was, Moving average was 12.2 km/ hr, Moving time was 3 hrs 58 mins – started at 9:45 and finished at 13:30 hrs. Shorter days are the answer in this heat – great before 13:00.

The B & B in Montimiletto – highly recommended should you visit!

Great for me that there are no tourists here. Weather is no different than in the south of France, or Spain, and biking or walking until about 13:00 hrs is really no problem – after that it’s mid 30s and the sun is directly overhead, so hard work. The hills are cool at night – perfect.