After a good night’s sleep, I wake up bright and early to start my drive to Terni at 7 am.
Since the hotel is closing for remodeling today, there is no breakfast available at the hotel. Hotel breakfasts typically aren’t what I go for … except for Italy where one can be sure to get a good coffee and some cornettos to go with it.
Not getting breakfast isn’t a problem either, as there are bars everywhere.
The day promises to be another scorcher. Not only do all my weather apps predict 35+°C but just being outside at 7am and experiencing 28°C is all I need to know how the day will be!
My TWIKE has fully charged over night. The charge was at 7A for 9 hours – totalling around 14kWh! The total capacity is still around 15.6kWh, which is not too much of a decrease from 17.7kWh which were available in August 2018 when the battery pack was new.
The cells themselves are at an ideal temperature of 37°C and ready for our slightly shorter distance of around 360km today.
And off we go! I’m really looking forward to the drive today, as I have changed my plans to drive along very small roads and spend as long as possible along the Apennine hills to escape the heat (as I did during my return from Portugal 3 years ago, thanks to Sierra Gredos)
Just a few km down the road I spy a very local bar and decide to get some breakfast there. Bar Nuovo it is!
Ahh. This is life! Perfect coffee, A cornetto with custard filling and a conversation with the locals!
I get two more of these coffees before continuing my trip!
Whilst the views got increasingly better, my TWIKE was increasingly getting a beating from below. Decades of mismanagement and non-investment in Italy’s road infrastructure definitely show here!
Boy am I looking forward to crossing the Toscana – Also, I’m still climbing and the temperatures stay acceptable.
On the plateau, things are very agreeable – temperatures slightly below 30°C and road surfaces that don’t kill the TWIKE.
With the hills coming into view, more and more really nice photo opps for TW560 come along!
Curiously, when checking my navigation software, I noticed a place that sounded a little too good to be true just a few kilometres from my intended route – Panna.
I’ve been loving and drinking San Pellegrino for a long time – and have visited San Pellegrino a few times by TWIKE. I also knew that Acqua Panna didn’t come from the same source but wasn’t aware just how far apart the two sources were!
So, here we are: I’m driving up the hill towards Panna and … boom … I’m at the intriguingly small facility that bottles the world-famous water.
Whilst living in Asia 20 years ago, ‘tasty’ and ‘fresh’ water was just not a thing. When my wife and I felt like a treat, we bought San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna at $4.5 / 33ml (in 1998 which translates to $8.83 today. A TRUE treat!)
For those who don’t know Acqua Panna – it’s marketed as the smoothest water on this planet. I can’t confirm this as – for me – this is Icelandic Glacial. Granted, it’s very smooth and – living in Switzerland, drinking this water does not harm the environment as much as importing water from Fiji (WTF?). Environmentally, San Pellegrino water is sometimes better than local Swiss mineral waters as the source features its own train terminal.
After having a quick ‘as-fresh-as-it-gets’ sip of Acqua Panna, I decide to continue up the hill the source sits on, pass by Villa Panna and head onwards towards Castellana.
On the other side of the hill, Tuscany starts for real.
Everything looks like a postcard or promotional video. – see the video below. Just stunning stuff for about an hour.
Further down the road and back at lower altitude, temperatures were far above 30°C but still TWIKEing was a pleasure as there was only little traffic and the road surface – for once – was mostly acceptable.
Part of my drive today, as mentioned, was avoiding excessive temperatures and heading along the Apennine as much as possible – which I needed to force Google Maps a little.
What followed was a good 50km of small windy roads without any traffic and – often – no cell reception.
Not only was the road deserted, but also mostly in the shadow thanks to the dense forest.
My TWIKE’s consumption, however, was really high. I didn’t really notice how much I was climbing in altitude as the trees didn’t allow for much views.
At the top, I got to a pass just shy of 1000m above sea level – temperatures were great but I had another small issue to contemplate:
According to Google, I still have to drive another 208 km, but my battery has only 159km range left.
Unlike most EV drivers, I don’t just go search for the next charging station but cherish the moment of contemplation about topography, kinetic potential of being at 1000m and driving back down to 200m eventually.
I come to the conclusion that I will make it to Terni on a single charge today.
Also, I’m not hypermiling today – I do want to arrive sometime during the afternoon, not evening.
With this sorted (…sort of) I continue a nice slow descent back to Tuscany’s hills – dotted with many hillside villages. the views are still beautiful, however:
On entering the rolling hills of the Toscana, temperatures soared to a very hot and humid 38°C.
This would be a very nice drive if it were just a little bit cooler. As it is today, I’m back to drinking litres of water and sweating profusely. At least the batteries are at a perfect temperature to deliver a maximum of energy…who knows if I’ll need it!
The small roads, views, colors and peace thanks to no traffic make the next few hours really enjoyable.
When I get to Lago Trasimeno, I know that I’m getting close. As a family, we used to drive here to spend Saturday afternoons on the shores and eat at one of the many outstanding Osteria’s.
Another bit of good news was my battery’s range reaching parity with the distance left – hurray!
I, however, am still forced to stop ever so often to get cold drinks and enjoy a moment in an air conditioned petrol station to cool off.
With 55km to go, I come across the first road sign for Terni – I’m going to be ‘home’ soon!
Having arrived just a short while later with a very, very empty battery, the first task after a joyous welcome is to set up the super-slow charge at 230W.
I think the best way to describe this kind of charging is ‘creative’ 🙂
We route the extension cable from the 4th floor window down to the TWIKE.
Here comes the cable!
Looking at the stats for today, it’s clear to see that I wasn’t hypermiling today – the consumption is 24% higher than during a hardcore hypermiling session. Also, I was able to save even more energy than expected. I’m left with about 850 Wh left in the battery.
At 96% DOD the battery was pretty sluggish already but would have given me another 20-24km range. The 10km range below is due to the controller limits being set very conservatively by me.
At 321V OCV the inverter will first trickle-charge the battery until it reaches 335V (a legacy in the inverter software which cannot be removed and was geared towards getting totally dead NiCd’s back to life) and then start charging normally.
For me and my friends, however, after a home-cooked meal, there is only one thing we want: ice cream!
At the main city square in Terni we go to one of the best in town and we treat ourselves to a cone each. What a treat after such a long and hot day!
Even though today was only 354km, I must say that crossing the Apennine on small rural roads was totally worth it but the temperatures killed me nevertheless.
During the next week I’ll be working during the day and either staying with my friends or visiting people every day during the evenings. I’m really looking forward to it!