Day 58 - Chiavenna to Varenna - Oh The Places You'll Go - 2025

June 7, 2025

Day 58 - Chiavenna to Varenna

Anachronistic stories of anarchy

Today was another classic day of touring, but at the other end of the ‘intensity scale’ than yesterday. I think we needed this.

Beautiful mellow cycling down river valleys and along lakes, largely away from traffic and crowds, until the latter part of the ride, with a few ‘spicy’ bits thrown in just to add a little colour to the day.

I’ll add in again how much K and I loved Chiavenna. It just had a great feel about it. Lively but low key, beautiful but subtle … and that was also the feeling at Villa Giade where we stayed. It all fit.

When were leaving Chiavenna, I had another flashback to my previous time through here. Dave and I just passed through Chiavenna, we didn’t stay in places like this … it was low (or no) budget camping for us, but we did have to make a stop to purchase one essential item. A new map!

Even though we didn’t have firm long term plans on where we were going, Dave and I did actually like to know generally where we were and when we got to Chiavenna we had ridden of the bottom of our current Michelin map. That set up one of the funniest and to me, most Italian (1980’s Italian I’ll qualify), thing I’ve ever seen.

We spotted a ‘gas station’ about 400 m up the road we were on and figured we could get a map there. As we pulled into the station, which was just two pumps and a little payment kiosk that sold smokes and hopefully a map or two, an old Fiat 500 pulled in as well.

The Fiat coasted up to the first pump, the passenger jumped out and grabbed the filling hose and in an instant had it in the tank. The car is still moving. The guy in the Kiosk is now out and running towards the Fiat. Gas hose guy takes the hose out of the car’s tank and swings it towards the Kiosk guy, petrol spraying across the ground, and then jumps back into the still moving car and it speeds off, as much as an ancient Fiat 500 can speed. Kiosk guy, now splotched with gas, valiantly tries to run after them, yelling away (presumably swearing up a good storm … but we can only imagine), but he’s lost the chase.

All this happened in less time than it took you to read it. It had a particularly fluid choreography to it was well, seemingly like it had been rehearsed …. Quite often.

Welcome to Italy. This was during the time that the average lifespan of an Italian national government was measured in months, communist parties controlled several major cities and regions and an official Anarchist Party (now there’s an oxymoron!) was a force in national politics.

To a couple of 22 year olds on bikes, this was a fun place to be!

However, back to the present. We were now cycling down beautiful and impeccably maintained separate bike paths, the former anarchists were now 43 years older and likely the grandparents we saw cycling along with their grandchildren , or maybe they were even some of the Ferrari folks we saw yesterday? Yes things have changed here … but it still has that vital and vibrant edge to it, and we’re glad we are here.

So, another 50 some km’s of cycling with everything in the mix. The previously noted impeccable bike paths, some nice gravel paths, some very single ‘single track’, a small bit of busy road and quite a bit of almost deserted road … and the real spice - a small aquatic section where we had to negotiate a few floods. All of this made for a great day of cycling.

What about the hills you ask. Well, there weren’t any … until the end! We booked a place in Varenna that we knew was up in the hills above the town. It was after all called ‘The Hill House’, however we didn’t realize just how much hill was involved. It turned out to be about 150 m of hill, just about straight up, at the end of the day!

With that shock out of the way, we settled in for a good night and another day off. We knew that we would need a down day after the intensity of the Alps, and what a better place to have one than along the shores of lake Como.

Heart

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Glenna Jefferiesof the bottom... off the bottom
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1 week ago

Off we go, leaving the truly wonderful Villa Giade.

Heading down the Mera river and looking back on Chiavenna. So green. Beautiful and mystic with the clouds, it would be a totally different but still spectacular place with blue sky and sun.

Our last look up the Spluga valley. We’ll never forget it.

The legs on the bike go round and round …. Such easy and blissful cycling. Legs on autopilot and your mind wandering to where it wants, or needs, to go

green trees, grey sky and brown church steeples … everywhere

Image not found :( — One more verse of “The legs on the Bike Go Round and Round”

…and now for something completely different, a little bit of arrow straight single track

…and looking back on yet another church in what seems like the middle of nowhere where. No where now, but centuries ago it would have been the focal point for a whole community

Newly planted corn. I imagine the soil here is quite fertile given the runoff that occurs.

Now were into the Italian Lakes - first up Lago di Mezzola, a small lake just north of lake Como

still along Lago Di Mezzola, looking back north up the Chiavenna valley

I just love these old stone buildings. Your imagination can run wild with what they might have seen

… and this got thrown into the mix, a short muddy section to connect up a few main bike routes

The muddy field transitioned into a very ‘single’ single track section … short and straight as an arrow.

What a juxtaposition, the single single track ended with this busy road. It only lasted about 200 m and then it was back to dedicated bike trails.

… and donkeys! Riding by an equestrian centre and we spotted these two. Mom and her baby.

The donkeys were near a nature reserve where the Adda river, the namesake for our tour, flows into lake Como. It’s a flat low lying area prone to flooding … as this shows!

There were three sections like this, and they were fine to ride once you had the confidence that the trail was solid underneath … and that your Gortex sock would work!

Full on Lake Como now with ever increasing ‘touristification’ as we rode south. I realize that sounds a bit haughty, because what are we … just tourists as well

Continuing to head south along Lake Como

In Belluno, just another fancy tourist town just north of Varenna, our destination for the night… and the next day too

K trying to figure out the instructions for meeting our apartment host …. It was complicated but it worked out in the end … and we got a ‘work out’ … a 150 m very steep climb to the aptly named ‘Hill House’. We were initially a bit peeved at our choice, but it turned out to be wonderful to be high above the maddening crowd by the lakeshore. More on that tomorrow!

SOTD

Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel

‘Climbing up on Solsbury Hill,
I can see the city light…’

Yes we can, and the mood of the song really fits the day;

Today I don't need a replacement
I'll tell them what the smile on my face meant
My heart going "Boom-boom-boom"
"Hey, " I said
"You can keep my things,
they've come to take me home"

… and home is where your bike is (and your pedalling partner)

Good night from the Hill House, high above Lake Como!

Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 2,498 km (1,551 miles)

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Mike HadenThis brings back recent (and good) memories - I rode much of this route out and back from Colico in the fall of 2023. Same donkeys, same straight-as-an-arrow bike paths, although I don’t recall the single-track sections. I didn’t spend much time in Chiavenna as I was short on time, but I’ll make a point of exploring the town more the next time I’m there. Enjoy Varenna, it’s lovely (although hilly, yes).
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6 days ago

Rich FrasierYou’ve put something into words that we’ve felt, too. There’s something special about Italy. I can imagine that it would be an incredibly frustrating place to live for North Americans, but there’s something essentially human about it. We love being there, too.
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6 days ago

Lyle McLeodTo Mike HadenThanks Mike, the single track sections were totally due to a bit of freelance route adjustments we were making ‘on the fly’. Most of the time these work out and provide a little bit of excitement and variation.
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6 days ago

Lyle McLeodTo Rich FrasierThanks Rich, happy to hear that you’ve got the same feeling about Italy. It’s often just such a fun place.
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6 days ago

Scott AndersonGreat post, and photographs. The moody sky really accentuates the landscape. It's worth the whole read though just for the Fiat 500 tale.
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5 days ago