To None, Italy

June 30, 2025

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We had a good breeze all afternoon yesterday. It blew in a storm. We had thunder and a good rain most of the evening. It was just fine with me if it rains at night. After the storm rolled through, the wind died down and our room was stuffy. We took the bedspread off the bed, and dissected the next layer, removing the duvet. That left us with a sheet sack, which was fine for the warm room.

When we went down to breakfast in the morning, the husband (?) was manning the desk. He also spoke English. I asked him about all of the men walking around town with Tyrolean style hats with the jaunty feather. He said that there had been a reunion in town commemorating the World Wars and that the hats were typical for the participants. He called them alpine hats.

We were on the road a half hour earlier than normal. Perhaps not what I was hoping for, but I had a frozen water bottle! We had 4,000 feet of downhill today, but for some reason didn't feel like it. The first section was steep, with switchbacks and tunnels. The roadside was also dirty with gravel and sand. We are used to pristine French roads.

It's Monday morning. I'm happy we didn't ride this on Sunday afternoon. There was still a fair amount of traffic. Everyone was polite. It's a change from the remote mountain riding we've done the past few days.

At mile 30 we took a turn south and had the most enjoyable, remote miles of the day. There was heavy roadside greenery right up to the edge of the road. I think it might rain often in this area.

Rain was threatening all day, which kept the skies overcast in my favor. As we rolled into None, I passed a Muslim woman on a bicycle who told me, "Buen Estrada" - now I have three Italian phrases to use with other cyclists - including Bon voyage and Bravo! Look at me go, with only one day in Italy.

I felt like Avignon was enough big city stuff for me until we get to Venice. We skipped Turin and its sights. At last for today, staying south of Turin hasn't been terribly advantageous. It's still built up and busy. Our hotel is in an industrial area. We were able to check in early. Our room has AC! We didn't go outside the rest of the afternoon.

Dinner started at 7 PM at the attached restaurant. Menu del dia is 18E. Here it includes an alcohol drink. In France, drinks were extra. The dining room was soon entirely full with men. I was the only female customer in the entire room. Yes, definitely an industrial area. Food was much faster coming out here. They didn't presume we wanted to relax with our drinks first. This was a good meal, especially for the price. Our primero was pesto pasta. Jacinto said that was enough for him, he was full. We still had salad and our main to go. Jacinto got grilled chicken, which was good. I got pork something, which was cooked, but served refrigerated. That was a little odd. I had a carmel dessert that was similar to flan.

I had asked in advance what is served for the included breakfast. It's coffee and a croissant. She did say she could find me some yogurt. It's a continental breakfast, not an international breakfast. I asked about eggs. She said to ask at the restaurant if they would cook me some eggs. Our young waitress spoke excellent English. I asked if they could hard boil six eggs and what the cost would be. IDK if the reception lady had prepped them or not, but yes, they would hard boil me eggs and there was no charge.

Now I'm liking the food in Italy! I don't suppose we will always get an 18E menu del dia, but if we at least like the food, that's a start. Jacinto looked at our choices for tomorrow. It looks like a pizza place. I told him we need to eat pizza at least once in Italy.

We are back in our cool air conditioned room. I am hoping to get Jacinto to leave earlier tomorrow. We have a nice apartment (with a washer!). The owner will meet us whenever we get to town, we just have to give him advance notice.

Our next few riding days will be flat, with longer miles. Rain is threatening. I'm trying to take that one day at a time. At least with flat miles, we should be able to move fast enough to create a breeze. Maybe tomorrow will be overcast also.

My one day observation of this built up part of Italy is that the buildings aren't as interesting. So far, it seems that Italian and Spanish are similar enough that we can fake it fairly easily. Let's see how that plays out.

Our host this morning said that the First World War was hard on the area, as there was heavy fighting over the border between France and Italy. He also added that the French will come to Italy, but won't speak Italian, even if they know the language.

The view of Oulx from our room at Chez Toi T night.

The stairs to the outside breakfast area. Notice the brass knobs to hold onto.

Drivers in Europe have to be excellent at parking.

We had a couple of tunnels at the start of the day on the big downhill.

We didn’t get rained on, but it did look threatening. It was very humid.

They must get significant snow here. I wonder how they plow cobblestones.

A cyclist fills up his bottle at a dounrain. The new vocabulary word is courtesy of Scott.

Bicycles were featured prominently on today’s ride.

It has a turret. I think it’s a castle on the hill.

A typical street leading to the church. These cobblestones were more like pavers. They are easier to ride on than the cobblestones that are actual stones.

I would really like to see some storks on the church spires - recognizing these are the wrong kind of spires for storks.

This was a good excuse to stop on a climb.

We are parked with a Mercedes today. High class!

Our bedroom at the Quo Vadis Hotel in None. It has AC! Our first AC in 6-7 days.

I’ve never had a dark blue bathroom before.

Today's ride: 49 miles (79 km)
Total: 834 miles (1,342 km)

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Bill ShaneyfeltItaly is a special place! I think you will like it a lot.

Food I had there was quite good.

Our daughter spent 1 college year in Perugia, with her final 2 ending graduating in Rome. Quite the trip for us to go for the graduation (2006). She wanted to stay, but her student visa ended after graduation.
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