Perugia to Spoleto: Nothing's gonna stop me now...

...meaning my brakes are shot by the time I got to the hotel. Last night's accommodation and meal were, to my mind, the best of the entire trip to date, but that could be because I'm getting short term memory loss. Anyway, the bacon and eggs were without peer and the fact that Prosecco was available with breakfast (not that we indulged) sealed the deal. Today's ride into Spoleto was to be a relatively short affair with a bit of flat riding through agricultural fields. Whilst flat, open areas are often notorious for winds. Headwinds, cross winds, anything but tail winds. 

We soon came upon the delightful old town of Brevagna with its narrow cobbled streets and old stone buildings. A perfect place to stop for cafe corretto sambucca and a gelato. Lunch was just 7km away at Montefalco, the jewel of the regional wine industry but, of course, at the top of a climb. Our group of 5 decided we might press on rather than stop there as a 2 hour sit down meal by the time everybody arrived and ate, was going to make for a longer day than necessary, especially as we had set out planning to do an extra loop into the hills.

Suffice to say I was beginning to have second thoughts about more descents given the state of my protesting front brakes. It's an odd thing when the descents are more feared than the climbs: quite the opposite to what you would expect. The others also decided to make tracks straight to the destination at Spoleto except for Mick, obviously keen for more. Turned out to be a little more than he bargained for given the state of the roads (or lack thereof), a chase by some dogs and ending up in some abandoned village. Now this was not necessarily his fault as, for some reason the navigation devices sometimes do funny things and one can easily take a wrong turn. Anyway, he obviously found the challenge a hoot and came back full of beans.

Meanwhile, the rest of us enjoyed a beer at the hotel then a wander into town on foot for a sit down lunch followed by, you guessed, gelato. Next time I see Agnello socottiolo (or something like that) I'm ordering it. Grilled lamb chops. You should have seen the smile on Harold's face as he wiped the grease from his chin. My grilled chicken breasts were quite tasty though I must admit.

Spoleto has some associaton with Hannibal. After the Battle of Lake Trasimene Spoletium, as it was then known, was attacked by Hannibal, but he was repulsed by the inhabitants. During the Second Punic War the city was a useful ally to Rome. Spoleto still sports an old Roman amphitheatre, where Christians were persecuted and the nearby 1st century BC stone bridge, dubbed the Ponte Sanguinario (bloody bridge) is a reference to that.

Not many photos today I'm afraid but here's a few.

Brevagna, where we had morning coffee and gelato. An old man with red rose in hand offers compliments to lady passers-by

Mick climbing up to Montefalco

Followed by Richie

and Aaron

The sky looked pretty as I waited for Harold

Harold: last, but by no means least. This man is a real goer!

And so to the story of my brakes. By the time I rolled into Spoleto one of the front pads was destroyed (I could tell from the noise) and I have managed to rig up a new working front brake set by taking one of the (relatively) unused pads from the rear and pairing it with the remaining serviceable front pad. It's only got to go 48km and mostly flat. Plan B will be to use Jess' bike but I do really want to start and finish on the same bike. Big brake overhaul coming up when I get home.