Wednesday 5 May
Oats and yoghurt for breakfast in our room. It was starting to rain again when we looked out the window, and by the time we set off at 08h40 it was pretty wet. The rain persisted for the first hour of riding and we were very wet, and very cold. The temperature was hovering around 10 degrees Celcius and we were soaked to the bone. Our rainjackets weren't the fully waterproof type, basically just water-resistant wind breakers. So after more than 15 minutes or so of rain they would become sodden. Nicole was not a happy camper and anytime we saw a train or railway line she started talking (hallucinating?!) longingly about catching a train.
For some reason I didn't agree with her and we pushed on in very character-building conditions. Eventually after Todi on the Orvieto road it stopped raining. And after about another hour we'd dried out properly. We rode past quite a pretty lake and then took our turn-off to Montefiascone.
About 20 mins from Montefiascone it started raining again... so much for arriving dry. In fact it was abolutely pouring and we were completely soaked when we dragged ourselves into a reasonably nice hotel in the middle of the town.
At 16h30 when we set off for a stroll around the town it was 13 degrees, but that didn't stop us from getting some great gelati. Like most towns in Tuscany this one was also on top of a hill, and were it not for the thick mist that was enveloping the town I believe there was a lake just below that we would have been able to see.
We found a nice restaurant for supper where Nicole had a fish described simply as "lake fish" - it was nice whatever it was!