June 6 - Tuesday
The ride to Ostia was uneventful. We came over the last hill before town and saw the Mediterranean Sea for the first time. It was pretty dramatic. The town itself was very quaint and our last stop before crossing back over the Tiber and heading north. The right was flat and we were making good time with the wind to our backs - we were flying - going upwards of 33 kilometers an hour. We also saw our first fellow bicycle tourer. He was solo, fully loaded. He looked kind of lonely. I can't imagine undertaking a trip of this magnitude by myself. There have been many points of just plain solitary riding with so-so scenery that I wouldn't like to do by myself. It's also nice to have someone to enjoy the high points of the ride as well. The campsite was kind of scary and kind of interesting too. Jon says he's not sure how to describe it but likens it to camping along with a bunch of gypsies. Most of them were semi-permenant residents. We think that most of these campsites are the Italien version of RV parks. There were four other touring bikes that we camped next to but we never saw the riders as they came back after we had gone to bed and didn't wake up by the time we left the next day. We rode into town looking for a grocery store. The place was pretty quiet and we were soon the center of attention. It took me forever to figure out what to buy. Jon waited outside with the bikes while I shopped and says lots of kids came up to him and asked many questions. As we left, planning to eat our dinner along the shore we were followed by three older men on bikes. They were kind of creepy so we kept pedalling. They eventually stopped following us. There was a thunder storm that night. It started after we had turned in for the night. It was brief but did rain hard. Other than that - a pretty uneventful day.
