Saturday 11th June: Hazy and warm, 18°C to 25°
Cisterna d'Asti to Verduna: 45k, 7hrs from 9am to 4pm
45 k to Verduna
687m total ascent
Another cruisy hazy day through the hills and vineyards of Piedmont. The weather is perfect, warm and slightly overcast, and the countryside is beautifully springy with so many flowery smells where ever we ride.
Our day starts at 6am with a cup of tea from our Jet Boil set up on the tiled bathroom floor, followed by a few hours of emailing and blogging before breakfast at 8am. Croissants, Cappuccino, jam tarts and cheese on bread. It's 9am when we meet in the garden with our bikes packed, and there's time to say hello to the owners cute and friendly dachshund who insists on chatting through the fence. Once out the door, its time for a quick photo shoot before zooming 5k downhill to Canale where there's a Maxisconto supermarket just waiting for us. Twenty minutes later, we emerge with enough for a picnic lunch, but Donna has bought some bread from a real village bakery while looking for a bike shop to buy some more break pads.
Somehow, we miss a turn and the road takes us to Monteu Roero, another mountain village that's clearly a cyclists destination judging my the number of cyclists whizzing up and down the steep road. The village sits across a geological fault line in the hilss, and is straddled across a deep gorge. It's 11am and time for a coffee.
Blogging at 6am before breakfast
I'd like to take you home with me if I could fit you in my bag!
View from Albergo Garibaldi
Last minute bike adjustments
Ready to go
All inside the supermarket Canale
Morning coffee at Monteu Roero
Gravel road to Pocapaglia
Gravel quickly turns to bog
Donna at end of boggy road
Lunch at 2pm near Pocapaglia
Uphill to Verduna
Cold beer under the cherry tree
European Weather map. Rain across northern Europe but not Italy
Milton at dinner in Etihad Business Class Pyjamas.
Another long downhill and another missed turn takes us to Bartoli, a dead end farming village and we need to re-trace our route back to the main road. When you're zooming downhill, it's easy to miss turns. We pick up the route on a forest trail that is supposed to be gravel, but the smooth gravel quickly turns to uneven mud and it takes us 30 minutes to stumble through the slippery boggy track to the small village of Pocapaglia.
By 2pm, we're looking for a lunch spot and in a few minutes, we find a table and chairs in a small park complete with running water and a garbage can. Bread, cheese, tomatoes and a cup of tea go down well. By 3pm, we're on the road again, mostly downhill through the villages of Macellai and Pollenza, then its another steep climb up to Verduna where we find our Agri Turismo hotel, Ca Del Re. The setting is lovely with tables and chairs under a large cherry tree, inviting us for a cold beer before we go to our rooms. It's big business for large houses previously used for wine making, to become established bed and breakfasts.
This cycle ride has been very relaxing, with every day so far having a few hours before dinner to shower, wash our clothes and catch up with home through WiFi. And today we have 3 hours before dinner at 7.30. You could say its a holiday! And we have been extremely lucky with the weather. This week, there has been a heavy rain band covering northern Europe, causing floods across Great Britain, northern France, Belgium, Germany but not Italy.
We encountered an identical weather patter during our 5 month cycling trip around Europe in 1980. After persevering with rain every day for 3 months between May and July, we cycled to the south of France where we had perfect weather for the remainder of our trip. This weather pattern was caused by the eruption of Mount St Helens on May 18th 1980, which billowed a 7 mile deep band of ash across northern Europe causing havoc with the weather patterns. Hopefully the weather pattern will remain for the next month for our hiking trip in the Southern French Alps which starts next week.
Pre-dinner drinks at 7pm with a Spumante Rosé from the family vineyards, for teh girls while the boys have a local beer. Dinner is a selection of anti pasta entre, give the pasta 1st course a miss, then a variety of meats (pork, veal or rabbit) with potatoes for teh second course followed by Dolce (desserts) of chocolate mousse, strawberries, or creme caramel. With 2 more bottles of Barberesco, one of the three most important red wines of Piedmnt (the other two are Barola and Barbera.
A short walk after dinner to see this amazing view of the valley below dotted with the twinkling lights from the many villages we have visited or about to visit - Alba, Guarene, Roddino, Monteu Roero.
Lights of Piedmont villages at dusk