Sunday 12th June: Clear and warm, 18°C to 24°
Verduna to Roddino: 46k, 8hrs from 9.30am to 5.30pm
Verduno to Roddino route map
A clear warm day with much of teh haze from the past few days lifted after a thunderstorm last night. A truly magical day cycling through the UNESCO World Heritage Listed Vineyards of Langhe, Roero and Monferrato. A long day over 46k with many many ups and downs, a total ascent of 1120 metres.
An early start with the usual emailing and blogging before an 8am breakfast which is one of the nicest we've had - a buffet of meats, cheese, meusli, youghurt and tea cake. Then its time to pack and take a wquick walk up to the lookout where we were last night to enjy the panoramic landscape over the villages between Alba and Roddino, where we're headed today. At 9.30 we're off on a road that runs beneath Roddi, a village perched high above us. A few wrong turns takes us to a dirt track with several dead ends before joining a bitumen minor road. Joy oh joy when we see in the valley below a Mercato Supermarket, one we had hoped to find, as it was the only supermarket showing on google maps in the are we were riding today.
Verduno to Roddino profile
View from hill top at Verduno
Viewing spot Verduno
Donna flying downhill
"Shortcut" over the hill
Cherry picking
Supermarket in sight
Coffee on a grassy verge
More uphill
UNESCO World Heritage vineyards
Lunch in the shade
UNESCO World Heritage vineyards of Langhe Roero and Monferrato
Two Heads navigating
Locals celebrating in Novello
More steep uphills
Locando San Lorenzo - 2 night stay
Walking to Pizzeria for dinner
Milton at dinner in Etihad Business Class Pyjamas.
Weary discussion over dinner
Donna likes her lemon sherbert
Donna and owner from Azerbaijan
Ten minutes later we're at the Mercato and an hour later emerge with enough meats, cheese, breads, mache (fine leafed lettuce) and tomatoes to feed an army. Another wrong turn takes us down the main road before we do a U turn to take a minor road across the valley towards Ma Morra, another hill perched village. Half way up the steep climb, we top for a coffee sitting on a grassy verge overlooking miles of vineyards. Graham gets gong of the day. It was his job at teh supermarket to buy the morning tea - like a bun to go with our Jet boiled coffee - but no, its garlic/chile Olives. For the next hour climbing the steep road to La Morra, I'm tasting olives!
The village of La Morra is full of tourists - all locals out for a Sunday drive - not a sound of Americans or Germans. It was a hot ride up, but a street tap provide us with lovely cold water. On again and down hill to our lunch stop at a picnic spot complete with table, tap and garbage can. But a few families have occupied the tables, and we decide to perch on the edge of a monument. An hour later, feeling like stuffed pigs, we're climbing up hill towards Novello where there's hundreds of cars parked on the edge of the village. A walk up the cobbled streets reveals the locals from 6 villages having a competition of water games, mixed with many glasses of wine.
Yet another downhill to Barola, before another steep up hill towards Monforte then down and up to Roddino at 650 metres - not high by alps standards but high when you're riding up and down and up all day. No sign of our accommodation Locanda San Lorenzo, but Donna's phone reveals its about a k further on and it is. It's now 5.30pm and we arrange to have a few beers on the balcony before walking back up the hill to a Pizzeria we've seen on the way down. The Pizzeria is full of locals, and the owners wife is from Azerbaijan and speaks English. Dinner is an anti pasta and pizza, with a sparkling Teo Costa wine, topped off with a small glass of Limoncello.
Back down the road to bed.