Three Day Tour Three Day Tour

We left Milano early when Nadia left for work and struggled to leave the city as always, running into highways and bike trails and never the right road. We made it out eventually onto the flat Italian roads with the Alps ever present and snow capped in the distance. On day one we rode 110 km highlighted by a stop under a bridge over a river running clear with Alp water and perfect skipping stones. We napped and ate and relaxed. That night, we ate plums and dipped ourselves in an ice cold irrigation ditch as we prepared for a night of sleep under fighter jet fly bys. We ate ice cream in town and safely slept in the Italian countryside which was simply fileld with rivers corn fields and vineyards, feeing a bit like the Mid Atlantic!

One day 2, we rode 105 km through inreased hills and even more vineyards. We ate delicious watermelon to quench our thirst in the building heat of the dayAround midday, we crossed an enormous ruin bridge with stone entrances on either end leaving and coming from a Roman city, with a castle perched high on the hill. We bought lunch and ate and napped in a manicured green lawn town square sprawled in the shade and spots of sun. We ate pizza and stopped in a small town along a large brown river. We camped in a forest glen which happened to be populated by a few very large very loud bats which screeched all night and kept us waking continuously. Prior, the sunset over the Alps encompassed a perfect scene of the church silhouette and local bikers riding their bikes around town atop the berm behind a massive apple orchard with the sprinlers running.

The final day was the push for Venice and we reached it by riding in a few zig zags to avoid hills and rode about 110 km. In the morning, we stopped into a small town with one building in many pieces. It was amazingly old and barely anyone still held residence there It was set just perched onto the hillside and overlooked a valley full of corn and vineyards. The main buildings metal gate led through a vineyard and into an enourmous 5 story stone wall. We ate lunch beneath the shade of a supermarket along a highway where I was attacked by a praying mantis. We rode almost continuously this day to reach Venice early enough to attempt to find camping. We succeeded, but only barely. Finding no way to cross the bridge (though we didnt look hard enough, there was a sidewak!) and the only boat from mainland having just departed, we set back for the train, and reached Venice! Even the train station looked onto a perfect tourist destination. Then we took Pauls advice, a fellow tourer and German, and walked over a rail bridge under a highway and through a fence to reach a ferry which we rode free. We eventually reached camping by 10PM but not before running into a traveling group of gypsey variety singers and dancers. A great end to quite a 325 km journey. We ride to Slovenia today! More on Venice in next post. Needless to say, the words and photos wil never do justice to the experience of visiting, not surprisingly.