Manchester to Munich Part three
I arrived in Italy at midnight and despite the fact that I found myself in a new country at night with nowhere to camp and surrounded by migrants, I felt excited and content with the world.
The next day, I continued, much as I had done in the previous few days, cycling along the coast. The only real difference today was that I also found myself often taken over my scooter after scooter after scooter. They were literally everywhere.
No sooner had I reach Spezia, that I began cycling north and up into the Apennines. This was the first real multi-day climb of the trip, and to be quite honest, I was relishing it.
It was quite the sight really: taste swathes of forest covering every mountaintop as far as the eye could see. The roads seemed to snake their way through the terrain and at regular interval, small churches and any houses somehow clung to the cliff walls.
After coming down from the mountains, I cycled via smaller roads towards the city of Bologna where I was to meet up with my friend Mario.
The last night before reaching Bologna, I was finding it incredibly difficult to find a place to camp and eventually, was directed towards a local monastery. A peculiar thing then happened as I was putting up my tent; a lady came out and asked if I wanted some pasta. As I hadn’t yet eaten, I said yes immediately and a half hour later, found myself sat in their kitchen inside the monastery eating a voluptuous plate of pasta. Not bad at all.
From Bologna, I cycled onto Perugia where I met up with another friend, Francesca. We spent the next day in Perugi and the following evening enjoying a party by a lake not far from the city.
From Perugi, I took the smaller roads directly east towards the coastal town of Ancona where I was to catch a ferry across the Adriatic to the town of Split in Croatia.
A curious thing happened in Split, After I had enjoyed a coffee, I got talking to a guy who was working at the gelato store next door. Turns out he lived a few kilometres out of town and he offered to put me up for few days if I so desired. Well, I hadn’t been speaking with him no more than 20 minutes than he thrust his house keys into my hands and gave me his address. Needless to say, I couldn’t quite believe it.
From Split, I cycled up into the hills before finding myself in Bosnia. I had heard so many terrible things from Bosnias more recent history that I had had an urge to visit for as long as I can remember. For this reason, I was extremely excited to finally find myself here. The hospitality I encountered was second to none and the landscape was far better than I had imagined. Luckily, a few years later, I was fortunate enough to visit this wonderful county again.
From Bosnia, I cycled back into Croatia before heading north into the wonderfully forested country of Slovenia: a true delight. Ljubljana, it’s compact capital, had a real edge to it and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.
From Ljubljana, I cycled north west through Kranj and Bled before heading into the mountains that seperate Slovenia from Austria. This was incidentally, the first time I had encountered any rain at all since my arrival in Paris months earlier. Still, I was heading into the Alps and nothing could dampen my spirits!
