Sunday August 14, 2005, 96 km (60 miles) – Total so far: 8,166 km (5,074 miles)

Lago di Bolsena was great, we rode around almost half of it before turning west towards the coast. We had planned to head up to Siena today but a series of incidents caused us to head for the coast because it was closer. The first was us oversleeping by one hour and the second was my five punctures, one after another. The first puncture was caused by a pothole in the road but the remainder we put down to the puncture gremlins.

We had a great ride into Tuscany through the hills. Tuscany itself is proving a tricky customer. Because it’s now high season we virtually had to beg for our pitch at the fourth campsite we tried. We were lucky to get in and it isn’t even that nice. I had to queue to get a cold shower.

Lago di Bolsena, beautiful

Agata’s flaming desert