September 16, 2023
Day 10: Bologna to Quistello
Ride with me in the gentle rain
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It was damp and overcast when we awoke just after dawn. I figured it would burn off soon enough, and in the meantime, it would keep the sun off our backs. The site started to smell quite musty as we broke camp.
This was going to be our first flat day since last Tuesday (which was the only flat day we've enjoyed thus far). I was really looking forward to it, and to being on paved cycleway most of the day. Just easy breezy cruising with no surprises.
Then we had a surprise. It started out nicely enough:
Then we faced the anti-touring-bike bars:
Then we found ourselves kind of nowhere with no guidance. We rode the levee (yes, I've used Don McLean as my day's mental soundtrack a few times in the past) to that private home you see down the way, and snuck through rather ungracefully.
Soon we were on the cycleway, which we eventually discovered was in fact a rail trail. It paralleled the modern railway that replaced this defunct one.
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The damp air progressed into a steady rainfall. We brought rain gear, and we also know that every time we put it on, the rain stops. This time, we got a good hour or so of use out of it. Definitely worth the trouble.
Allow me to go off on a short tangent here. I like all the bike-related guerilla art and other such stuff associated with long-distance bike routes. I like the stickers people leave, too. It makes me feel like I’m adjacent to a subculture of people, mostly in their 20s, who are earnestly exploring the world through slow travel. Today I thought: what motivates people to print up hundreds of these little guys, and to pack them in a bag for their trip? I suppose they don't take up much space. I thought it's an innocent sort of tagging, a non-anonymous "Kilroy was here" kind of message, as well as a form of encouragement. Like, hey, I've seen a bunch of these stickers, there's a sort of vicarious camaraderie here in that I'm following the same route as this person. Maybe there's a bit of the hobo code thing going on, too: I stopped here and it's cool for other bikers to do the same.
But I see the QR codes and the instragram tags, and I realize that maybe these folks are just trying to gain a lot of followers. Not that it's such a bad thing. It just feels a little more selfish than the sort of anarchic, pro-bike-lifestyle message that I'd associated with it previously.
I'm not totally immune to the idea of getting more people to read my journals. I go through the trouble to make them, and I'm proud of our ability to overcome hardships, adapt to different cultures, and make meaningful connections with people as we travel. I want to inspire others to give it a shot if they haven't already. But it's not all that special. We're just on vacation, doing our own thing the way we like to do it. The journal is first and foremost for us, to nostalgify over. Then it's for curious family and friends. Then for our fellow Cycleblazers. Then other cycle tourists who may be researching routes and such. Only then do I think of the general public, and honestly, I doubt anyone in that category would ever bother to read even one paragraph of this hastily-concocted journal or look at one photo taken by a phone with no editing and little thought given to lighting or composition or anything else. Heck, I can hardly see what I'm shooting at, what with the glare in the phone screen on these mostly sunny days. And then there's my dear wife's insistence that most shots should have one or both of us in it, as some bizarre "proof" that we were there, that we didn't just copy a postcard photograph from elsewhere.
OK, end of rant. Obviously I have too much energy after this easy breezy day of riding.
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At Mirandola, we stopped for coffee. We also had a decision to make: stay on EV7, which would meander along a river and therefore probably be pretty neat; or take the most direct route and hope for the best. We chose the latter, then we contacted our Airbnb host in Quistello to let them know we were about an hour out.
Quistello wasn't even on our radar screen until I randomly decided to check Warmshowers two days ago and happened upon a host there. Unfortunately, he wasn't available, but the idea of ending our day here stuck with me. It seemed like the perfect distance, and a nice town to boot. As I mentioned yesterday, accommodations are limited on the weekends, but one place was available. It was a little above our budget, but it looked like an ideal place to recuperate after a day in the saddle.
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We rode into town and on to the street our hosts had given us. There was no street number, so I assumed that it would be obvious where we should stop. It was not.
After a couple of minutes of wandering up driveways here and there, we spotted a lady looking at us from down the street. It was obvious to all three of us that the search was over. I called out to her, she waved us over, and we met her, her husband, and two relatives who I think were asked to help translate. It wasn't necessary. We communicated just fine. Enzo and Annateresa are warm and lovely hosts. They showed us all around the home, and then left us to rest.
There were errands to take care of, including shopping. With a full kitchen at our disposal, we spent a lot of time deciding what to cook. It's always fun to see what different ingredients are available in each region we visit. We eventually decided on some fresh fettuccine and arrabatia sauce (super original, I know), along with zucchini and mushrooms. We ate more than we deserved after this easy breezy day. We're going to have to tone down the feasts until we start encountering hills again.
Today's ride: 83 km (52 miles)
Total: 537 km (333 miles)
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8 months ago
8 months ago