Monday 13th June: Clear and almost cool, 18°C to 22°
Roddino Circuit: 45k, 5hrs 30mins from 9.30am to 3.00pm
Guess who's been shopping
Cofee break Belvedere Langhe
Water break Murazzano
Blue skies and grapevines
Head down bum up
Narrow streets Murazzano
100% Clean Italian Toilets
Maritime Alps in hazy distance
Verduno to Roddino route map
A lazy day off in Roddino. Jenny went for a long 14k walk to Monforte and back. Donna and Milton shopped in Roddino and googled. Graham, Ian and I did a 45k kinda easy bike circuit around Roddino.
A late breakfast at 8.30am while everyone discusses their plans for the day off. By 9.30am Graham, Ian and I have hit the road, back up the hill to Roddino village and decide to give Monforte a miss. Instead we go directly to Dogliani, an amazing 10k downhill ride on a country road through a quiet valley. Dogliani is a biggish village, and one of teh few we have encountered at the bottom of a valley at a relatively low 339m. The first place we spy is a bakery where I buy a fresh loaf of bread, and soon after a supermarket where Graham buys some cheese, tomatoes and butter.
The next 20k is all up hill - a constant 400m ascent. The first village is Belvedere Langhe at 659m where we stop for a coffee at a table with a view, then on even higher to Murazzano at 739m where we stop for water and get our first distant hazy glimpse of the Maritime Alps where we'll be walking next week. For the next 10k, the ride takes us along a ridge on a well graded main road with hardly any traffic. At Bossolasco there's several picnic tables under the pine trees - a perfect spot for lunch at 1.30pm.
It's all down hill from here as we follow the main road down and around and in 30 minutes, we fly into Locanda San Lorenzo arriving before 3pm. It was a beattiful blue sky day, and much easier than previous days. Firstly because we had left most of our luggage behind and only carried a rain jacket and bits and pieces for a picnic. Secondly because the route was not so higgledy piggledy and we were able to earmark just 4 villages and follow the street signage, and the long down followed by a really long up is not as tiring as up and down, up and down the whole way.
It started out as a relaxing afternoon, just blogging and looking at photos until I realised my favourite Aldi rain jacket was missing. Frantic searching everywhere failed to find it an I reluctantly asked our host Miribella if she would kindly take me back in her car to Bossolasco where I thought I had last seen the jacket. There's no jacket. Neither is the jacket at our coffee spot, nor our water stop, nor the supermarket. And before we know it we've done the 45k circuit back to Locanda San Lorenzo in Roddino with no jacket. I was mentally making alternative arrangements in my mind, when we pulled into the car park of San Lorenzo, and Donna leans over the balcony and asks me what would make my day!. Well of course it would be finding the jacket, and she had found it underneath the garaged bikes where it had fallen out of my bag and rolled beneath 4 bikes stacked in a row. Sheepishly I had to tell Miribella that we had found it but she was just as ok with our "touristic trip" and was happy that it had been found.
Celebrations all round with a beer in the lounge room. Today is a little cooler than it has been and it was too cold and windy to sit on the balcony. Another walk up the road to the Agriturismo restaurant. Three bottles of wine and just two courses of dinner and we quickly walk back to avoid the oncoming thunderstorm.