December 6th 2023

As with the last half of the day before yesterday's route to Vallo della Lucania, I'm lucky enough to pedal almost the whole day without any passing cars, to reach the coast at Sapri.

Today was a day of two major themes : blocked roads & silly tunes

The blocked roads :

After more than two hours of pedaling, mostly uphill, I pass the village of Cuccaro Vetere. Immediately afterwards, the road is blocked by striped plastic and a sign indicates a total ban on driving. I check my GPS to see if there are any alternatives. But the configuration of the roads around here would force me to return to my starting point. A young woman then gets out of a car stopped nearby and confirms that a tree has fallen and is completely blocking the road, and that the only alternative would be the freeway, which of course is forbidden to bikes (we're not in Macedonia here, where we were able to ride over 150km on the Alexander the Great freeway in 2014!!!). I ask her if a bicycle can still go through, knowing that I can take off my panniers and carry the whole thing. She tells me it's too dangerous, and that if the carabinieri see me, I could be in trouble. But a return to square one is only the ultimate solution for me... Hopefully, her father, who understands my concern, finally gets out of the car and tells me that if I go "piano piano", I should be fine... So I step over the plastic strips and come across 2 municipal employees who again tell me that I can't go through, that it's forbidden, ... At my insistence, they let me go anyway. There is indeed a tree across the whole width of the road, but it only takes me 5 minutes to get to the other side. I had seen much worse in Patagonia, but I'm glad I was resolute !

A little further on, as I descend towards the village of Alfano, I suddenly hear fireworks exploding. Well, in broad daylight, it doesn't look like much. Then the church bells start ringing and, simultaneously, a brass band starts playing. What is going on? A few hundred meters further on, in the village, I find myself trapped behind a procession of about fifty people, some carrying statues. It's St. Nicholas Day today !!! I didn't get to celebrate the one in Fribourg with family and friends, but this one makes up for it a little ! A local suddenly comes up to me and points out a side road to get past the procession, which would otherwise block me for another 30 minutes at least. Thanks a lot m8 !

The silly tunes :

My route takes me to the coast and the little town of Sapri, where I'll be spending the night. And I've seen dozens of signs pointing to Sapri. The problem is that I have Pavlovian reflexes that make me intone Hervé Vilard's song "Capri c'est fini" every time and in loop, modifying the first syllable. It's particularly dumb and stupid, and sometimes I'd like to unplug my brain.

But I've had a bit of a break, so to speak...

In Laurito, I stop for lunch to eat an apple, a cornetto (croissant) from the local panificio and drink some water. As there's a bar nearby, at the end of my "meal", I decide that a caffé lungo would be ideal. While I'm waiting for it at the bar, 2 regulars who are already on prosecco and beer at midday start calling out to the young barmaid and singing "Ti amo, ti amo" by Umberto Tozzi. Thanks guys, I now have another silly song in mind to get the first one over with !!!

I'm now in Capri... Uhhh... Sapri and look forward to cycle the coast tomorrow. It should be sunny the whole day and Raffaelle, my host, told me that the road is really scenic and quite low on traffic. Yesssss !!!

Fondi to Sapri