Day 369 – EU – Italy [Montalto di Castro to Civitavecchia]

08/04/21

37km

  From Montalto di Castro (Italy) to Civitavcchia (Italy)

Europe

A fairly uneventful day on the road, sunny, rural and pleasant

Quiet road heading south to Civitavecchia

As I left Montalto di Castro this morning I knew I would only have 2 miserable kilometers on the E80 motorway and then get the rest of the way on a straight line, in the countryside, all the way to Civitavecchia. This is the kind of run where I tend to let my imagination go places. Today I was thinking how it would be to run through the Nullarbor desert in Australia, where days on end would look absolutely the same: red sand to the right, red sand to the left and the road going on a straight line for 100s of kilometers at a time…

Civitavecchia Leandra Piazza

Though there was not much distraction today, I thought how no distraction at all would be a completely different challenge all together. It’s definitely not for now, as Australia is unlikely to open to tourism in 2021 as I’ve said before. But the landscapes were beautiful though, olive, eucalyptus and lemon trees, reminding me of Greece too somehow. The wind had died down a little so it was not an issue today.

The Wednesday Night Online Quiz Team – Winners!

Side note today on what keeps me connected on this (otherwise) solo running journey on the road. There are some elements of routine. I have a traditional midweek call with my best friend Stephanie in France, when she gets her day off from work, our coffee break together. There’s the twice a week Singapore call with the Tomballe family, usually before they go to bed, which is exactly when I finish my run. My runs are regularly interrupted by WhatsApp messages from friends and family, which I happily answer to on the spot. And every Wednesday night, the highlight of the week is the traditional “online pub quiz” which I owe to the pandemic. I team up with my friends Lisa, Sharon and Kiki in Greece – an opportunity to put up silly faces on WhatsApp. We are one in about 10 teams to attend the weekly Quiz hosted on GoMeeting by our friend Andrew. These elements of routine keep me very connected and I think this routine is very important to my wellbeing in general.

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: