Todi to Orvieto

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Early this morning we (mainly Tamara) woke to a spectacular lightning/thunder show.  I "saw" the lightning through my closed eyelids, but the thunder was dang loud!   It rained quite a bit after the light show, and it was pretty damp when we finally hit the road a little after 9AM.

Antonella again met us after breakfast, at the Hotel Fonte Cesia, to give us the routes for our last two days of biking.  Today's ride had the most elevation gain at 1000m for the trip, and with a 60% chance of rain, it felt like we would be in for a long miserable day.

Everyone has well tended gardens here

As well as cages to keep future dinner plans

We enjoyed the downhill cruise out of Todi in the overcast skies, and started the long climb 5km into the ride.

The temperature was good for riding, and the slight breeze kept us cool as we slowly made our way up through the countryside.  As we approached the summit, we had a few sprinkles, but nothing like the rain we'd experienced on previous days.  It was just enough to keep us cool.

Looking back at Todi

When we reached a small community called, Prodo, at the summit of the climb, we stopped to see if we could rustle up a panino or two.  No luck, so we started the long downhill.

Prodo

Little old church outside Prodo

One thing we have really noticed over here is the abundance of flowers, both at people's homes as well as wild flowers.

Eventually, we had our first view of Orvieto in the distance.

Once we dropped down into the valley, we were back in reality.  Traffic, traffic, traffic.  Since we were both starving and a bit scared by all all the traffic, we pulled into the first place we saw to  fill up on several varieties of calzones.

Satiated, we took the crosswalk to get on the correct side of the street, since the traffic was so crazy, and then we started up the hill to Orvieto in the hot sunshine. We circled the city walls before eventually climbing up a quiet street to our home for the next two nights - B&B Casa Selita.

After quick showers and a two hour nap, we eventually dragged ourselves up to explore the city.

Gelato is good at any time and any age!

Tomorrow is the last day of the tour - Civita di Bagnoregio.

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