July 11, 2025
To Levico Terme, Italy
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
I told Jacinto with all of our climbing today, I'd like to get going a little bit earlier. How about a half hour? He does not move fast in the morning. We were up a half hour early, but out the door at 9:20. I asked for and received ice at breakfast. It wasn't a need this morning, temperatures have cooled off. But it is sure nice. I have a Hammer electrolyte drink that is not my favorite, but if it's cold, it's palatable. I brought a quart size ziplock bag, and haven't used much of it, because of the ice issue. Mostly I've been using Nuun tablets. Jacinto has rightfully been complaining about packing around that baggie of powder all of these weeks. The end of that story is, with ice, I use the powder.
Today was a delightful day. We rode mostly on bike paths along the river. The view was sublime both in front of us, and behind. We saw 10-12 bicycle tourists, and a bunch of day riders. The E bikes have made a return. I'd guess 80% of the riders were on E bikes.
We routed today on both Komoot and RWGPS. The elevation gains were wildly different. Today, Komoot had the most dire warning - 37% grade. I told Jacinto that couldn't be possible. We have a 20% hill at home that I haven't ridden in years, but when I did ride it, my front wheel would lift up. He was excited for the challenge, and disappointed it didn't happen. Reality is we didn't have any climbing to speak of, except for the occasional climb from the path up to a bridge to cross to the other side. All of the climbs were false alarms.
We had a very nice man stop us early on. Darned if we spoke each other's language, but I managed to understand him. He took us to a pedestrian bridge, as the direction we were going, the shoulder would disappear, and there were too many trucks. It wasn't very far, perhaps a half mile until our intended bridge. But it was kind of the man to be our personal escort. Neither of our routes showed the walking bridge. It was near a dam.
Today we cycled through several small river towns that focused on rafting and kayaking. They remind me of Glenwood Springs or Salida, 20 years ago. A stay in one of those small towns would be enjoyable.
I think I heard people speaking German today. We are getting closer to the border.
Today seemed to be a slow riding day. It was a gradual uphill, even though those big peaks didn't happen. I was definitely getting hungry by the time we got to town. We stopped at a grocery. I told Jacinto to buy everything, but he wanted a better definition of everything. I specified protein - chicken tenders is what I said, knowing full well there is no such thing here. I also asked for peanut M&M's. I got both of those, plus four bananas, four nectarines, and four oranges. Pickles - he found pickles. They are a little hard to find in Italy. France was no problem. We are set for fruit for several days. It's a good thing the climb tomorrow isn't too stiff, with that much extra weight.
Our bikes tonight are in a shed they typically use for linens on dollies. I think the cleaning service picks them up that way. They have indoor bicycle storage, but my bike is too long.
After eating our chicken cutlet snack, we wandered down to dinner at 7 PM. Now we think that is dinner time. It took a month, but we are used to a late dinner now. We both ordered pasta. I forgot a phone to take a photo. I had pasta with shrimp, mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes. It was good, but not delicious. Jacinto had penne pasta with meat sauce. He thought there could be a lot more meat. Duck was a choice, but no chicken. We haven't seen that since France.
For dessert I ordered a sherbetto lemon. I felt confident that was lemon sherbet. I should not be confident! It was an icy, lemon flavored drink in a tall, thin glass. It was good - but not sherbert. We were offered, and accepted limoncello. I asked if it were made here. The waiter said, not at the restaurant, but yes, made in the town. This was less cough syrup flavored that our previous sample, but still not my favorite. I do like prosecco, is that in my favor?
Something I keep forgetting to mention. There are smokers here, but it seems to me that there were more people smoking in France than Italy. That's my observation, perhaps not fact. I've also continued to see very mature women in bikinis. Good for them!
We are striking out on our own tomorrow. Both of our routing apps take us on the east side of the small lake. That appears to be road riding with no shoulder. There is a bike path on the west side of the big lake. We have routed ourselves that direction. Let's see how it turns out. It's not a giant commitment. Both routes come back together after four miles.
The Dolomites are beautiful!
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km)
Total: 1,264 miles (2,034 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 7 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 3 |
You might email me the route you're planning, because depending on the route the navigation can get quite difficult crossing the ridge over to Trento. No sense both of us making the same error and have to double back and climb out of the steep hill we just descended.
2 weeks ago
You might email me the route you're planning, because depending on the route the navigation can get quite difficult crossing the ridge over to Trento. No sense both of us making the same error and have to double back and climb out of the steep hill we just descended.
2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago