Today started so great!
We were actually on the road before 8 (the last time that happened we spent all morning in bike shops, so maybe that should have been a sign?) and rolled on. We made great progress, and even enjoyed the small luxury of a croissant as a second breakfast. The morning went so well that we had done 60 km by lunchtime! Thinking we had an easy 30k ride left to our destination, we enjoyed some salad and a little snooze on the beach.
Then we actually had our first rain! It ended up being just a few drops, but it was enough to make us go back on the road. The wind had also picked up quite a bit, and this time it was against us. After a while, our road quite unexpectedly turned into a motorway, which our gps wanted us to stay on. Fortunately, we managed to avoid it at the last moment and take the former main road instead, and even though it made us go up and down quite a bit (all with a still fairly strong headwind) it was actually quite nice and above all: almost empty of cars! The problem started when this road ran out on us. We managed to sneak through two more towns, and actually made it to only 8k or so before our goal for the day, but then what we had feared for a while became true: the only direct road between us and Policoro was the motorway. Everything else ended somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The only bridge over the next river could be found about 10km inland and several hundred meters higher up. We were quite tired by that point, but there was nothing to do about it: we had to turn left and climb all the way up to the second bridge. The country road in the evening sun would have been quite lovely under other circumstances..... 
After about 20k of detour, we finally arrived back on our planned track. And just for good measure, the day's route had another nasty surprise for us: For the first time so far, we were actually chased by dogs - not just once, but two times within the space of about two kilometers. The second time was especially scary since the dogs actually jumped over a fence to chase us. Each time, they only gave chase for a few meters and nothing happened except for a surprise sprint at the end of a long day.
Now that the leafblower who kept us entertained all through dinner has finally stopped, our campsite is quite nice, and I expect we will fall down on our sleeping mats posthaste.
I think what I will take as the moral of our story is this: nothing good ever comes off a day that has you on the road before 8... :P