To the people of Italy who conceived, funded and built SS18……we salute you.

Until today the roads have been servant to the geography of the coast line resulting in all that climbing. Today the civil engineers put an end to all that and threw serious money at the problem. For miles and miles the road was almost entirely tunnels and bridges – and gloriously flat. The longest tunnel was 1.25km and some of the bridges crossed hundreds of feet above the ravines.

All of this was VERY welcome because we were totally knackered this morning. Last night we were too tired to even find a restaurant so we had self-assembly sandwiches and tried to work out if we could swing a small kitten by moving the wardrobe. The answer was no. We slept like the dead but woke not really refreshed and as we started riding even the slightest slope slowed us almost to a standstill.

We perked up a bit later in the day and did our 80 with only a little snivelling. We are now about at the bottom of the lace holes and tomorrow we aim to get to the end of the big toe where we will stay before catching the ferry to Sicily and the last leg (well, the last BIT of the leg).

My face is very brown but my eye sockets are very white. I look like Chi Chi in negative.

Ciao
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