You know you’re a bike tourer when…..

Hi Anne/David,
I think your thoughts on accommodation availability are spot on. We’re certain arriving right near the start of the summer season and hopefully that means less crowds and more businesses starting to open up.

We’ll be in the Cortina / Corvara area from around 20th -28th May and then heading west to Bolzano & Merran. When will you be in the Dolomites? Any chance of an overlap?

They are great! We’ve had IGH (Rohloff’s) and belt drives for over a decade so maybe we’re getting blasé about them. Super reliable, virtually no maintenance and quiet. It was one of the top three ‘must haves’ for the new bikes.

Hi Suzanne, we’re now in Italy and getting ready to battle jet lag for a few days. We’re really excited about the ride, hopefully reality matches our expectations.
We will be in your area for a few weeks (last half of June) after we complete our tour and it would be lovely to get together with you and Janos. Maybe we could take this to a separate email thread ( ltmcleod1 at gmail)

Hi Scott. We’re now in Italy, as are you! Landed about 10 hours ago and we’re just about to crash for the night. Yes, we fly home on the 6th July from MXP. We’ll be staying at the same B&B that we’re at now in Soma Lombardo which is just a few km’s from MXP.
From what we’e seen of your itinerary, meeting up around Asti around 1st July +/- a few days would work for us. Lots of time to sort details before then.

Glad to see you only had an hour delay in YUL. Hope the forecast deluge days this week in Italy are downgraded too!

Wow, what great bikes!

You really should make a bigger deal about those sweet-looking belt drive systems.

Kick stands - so simple, such a game changer!!

It’s Anne, here —- we have a Dolomite trip coming up too! I did all the planning last October and November. The accommodation was ‘complet’ way back then, which drove my curiosity meter over the top. How could it be? I still don’t have the answer, but I do have a hunch. Late May and early June is their down-time, between seasons, so many of these places close for a holiday and/or schedule renovations. Perhaps it pushes the costs up, as well? I don’t know true this is, but I don’t believe the area is going to be jammed with tourists, as suggested by the booking experience. We shall see. We leave May 22. Maybe we will cross paths!

What a great route! I'm looking forward to the ride!

Thanks Glenna,
Looks like we might have a very interesting start. We just got a weather warning from Air Canada … snow in Montreal tomorrow where we connect with our Milan flight! Sounds like it could turn into one of those nasty ice storms.

Er - not Turin. Let’s meet up near Milan, I meant. We’ll be in Milan on July 3rd to catch the train south to Bari, but we will within reasonable driving distance of Milan for almost a week before them. We were planning to bike south through Vigivano at the end, but we could just as easily go through Novara or even up to the southern tip of Lake Maggiore instead and be within spitting distance of the airport. When are you flying home - July 6th or 7th I imagine - and where is your final stay?

Looking forward to your entries to keep me entertained over the coming months. Have a super trip.

This looks like a really wonderful tour. We’ve done much of this too, as I think you did too - at least through northern Croatia.

And it still astonishes me that we’re flying over on the same day and that we almost decided to start in Milan rather than Bari. If we had I’m pretty sure we’d have found ourselves on the same overseas flight. Buon Viaggio to all of us, and I hope it works to meet up near Turin at the end.