Brrr. It is cold out there

Hey all. We are slowly making our way down the eastern coast of Italy. This is mostly due to the fact that for four days we moved very little or not at all. Both Emma and I got very sick. We both had very bad soar throaghts which makes riding miserable. I also had a terrible fever that lasted three days. I am not sure I have had a fever in my grow up life and really don't hope to get another anytime soon, it was miserable.
Gen and Georgia took great care of us while also going slightly stir crazy stuck up in hotel rooms.
We "celebrated" new years pretty mellowly in our hotel room counting down with the TV, warmly snuggled in bed while dynamite sounding fireworks exploded outside. Since new years fell on a Sat there was an extra long period of closed shops and empty Italian villages, this did not help the stir crazy healthy or the recovering sickies. No food and no medicine. Luckily taking it slow paid off and Emma and I have recovered well and are able to ride at full strength now.
Today was an extremely beautiful day. We cut inland leaving the coast. What a good idea. We enjoyed open spaces of green agricultural fields strewn with old crumbling stone buildings. The occasional quarry lead to an increase in large trucks whizzing past us on the narrow roads. At lunch as we sat frozen on the side of the raod numb toes and tingling fingers we felt our first rain drops. Luckily it held off until we were able to reach our campsite. We are now all nestled in our tents reading in the warmth. P.S. There are a lot of cats at this campsite.