Agordo to Vittorio Veneto

June 19, 2022

Bed and Breakfast Raffaella is a very nice place to stay if you’re ever in Agordo. Comfortable room, good breakfast, lovely hosts. It may be Raffaella who runs the business but we saw much more of her husband. I think he took an interest in us because we are cyclists—there were two other bikes in the garage with ours and I think they were both his, one electric, one “normal”.

After breakfast, he (we never caught his name but he reminded us of Emo on one of our favourite tv shows) asked about our route for today and was very pleased we had chosen to ride through Val de Mis. He got out maps to suggest an alternative route (we stuck with ours because we will pay a bit of extra steepness for hopefully less traffic on a smaller road) and strongly suggested we stop to see the Cadini del Brenton in the Val de Mis. All of this was communicated in Italian (him) and English (us). Maps and phones helped.

With that, we were off through the town, across the river, and up the first climb. It seemed harder than it should, probably because of the warm and muggy conditions.

The Ponte Vecchio. We’ll above water level!

Looking back down at Agordo (and catching my breath).

But the descent through the Val de Mis made it worth the effort. I’d never heard of this famous gorge before. I routed us this way because it was a narrow road going in the right direction and past a lake, so I thought it might be nice. I mentioned a few days ago that I don’t always agree with map publishers on what is scenic and, although this road was very scenic, for some reason it didn’t rate a green highlight on our map.

I think this village was soon after we turned on to Via Val del Mis.

Then we started descending through the gorge, with its many small (short, single-lane) tunnels. This is looking back up; you can see the portals of two tunnels if you look carefully!

We paid our two Euros each to join the large number of Italians on a Sunday outing to visit the Cadini di Brenton, a series of potholes in the Brenton River, a tributary to the Mis. We were curious how cold the water was (it looked cold but that can be inviting on such a hot day) but all access was fenced off. The rock was steep and probably slippery so I expect the fencing was appropriate—we haven’t noticed as much fencing-off of things in Europe as at home.

The Cadini di Brenton are very popular on a sunny Sunday.

Back on our bikes to enjoy the breeze of riding. It really makes a difference on a hot day. The road is wider along the lake and it seems most people come up this way but only as far as the Brenton River. Many cars parked at this and a couple of other destinations but many people on bicycles too.

We left the valley in a few swooping turns and then there were several kilometres on the flat before crossing the Piave River to Trichiana and the next climb, to Passo San Boldo.

This one was tough because I was tired, less than overheated like this morning’s endeavour. Plus, you work hard to get up and then, around halfway up, you find yourself descending a series of hairpin turns. I had to stop and make sure I was still on the correct course because I sure didn’t want to have to climb back up if I’d missed a turn.

Eventually, though, I made it and Al was waiting at the top.

I’ve need intrigued by Passo San Boldo ever since I first saw a picture of it (posted by Scott Anderson in a comment on Kathleen Classen’s journal on that other site, I think). When I showed Al, he became intrigued too, so riding Passo San Boldo north to south has been on the itinerary since the initial concept.

We hadn’t done much (any!) research, though, so had no idea how the traffic would work. But it worked very well.

A closer look at the English part of the info sign

This sign was on one of the non-tunnel hairpins in the way down.

The famous hairpin tunnels are one-way-alternating, controlled by traffic lights. As we discovered, there’s an intermediate light between the two lights at the ends of the narrow section.

I stopped to get shot of the famous view (the best I could do with a phone, wanting to be quick. This is before the intermediate light.

While waiting for the aforementioned intermediate light to change to green (all the motor vehicles made it through, we dawdled), I managed to capture the Giro symbol. Stage 19 of the 2019 Giro d’Italia climbed this way.

The gorge the road with the “Macaroni Tunnels” (as we think of them) takes a bend, do you can’t see the switchbacks with the tunnels from below. You’d need a drone to get a really good shot.

We found our B&B in Vittorio Veneto without any wrong turns, perhaps a first for us! Once the temperatures moderated a bit, we headed out for dinner. Our host had warned us that the trattorias in the square might be busy due to “and concerts” happening and given us an alternative suggestion. They were indeed busy so we carried on yo Dad Lauro. It was busy too, but tables were available inside and since we spend most of our days outside, that was fine by us.

Fighera House, Serravalle, Vittorio Veneto

The river flooded catastrophically in the 1500s and was then tamed. Serravalle, Vittorio Veneto

We both chose the same pasta dish as a first course

We shared the second course; they brought it already divided on two plates. This was my half.

Dessert! Red Velvet for Al and crème brûlée for me.

The piazza was still busy but not the source of the music we could hear.

That’s where it was coming from! What a fantastic venue! We just caught the last couple of songs, covers of classic rock. Very loud and with sax!

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Today's ride: 71 km (44 miles)
Total: 2,102 km (1,305 miles)

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Comment on this entry	Comment	3

Lyle McLeodOMG, that looks like a stunning day of cycling, as has every other day you’ve spent in the Dolomites! Thanks for sharing this spectacular region.
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1 year ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Lyle McLeodIt was a great day with much more than we expected!
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1 year ago

Margie AndersonFabulous post!
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1 year ago