May 26, 2025
Serravalle
Jetlag is a mysterious thing. While my head hit the pillow at 11:30pm last night and I had no troubles drifting off to sleep, I woke up at 2:30am feeling pretty certain it was 7:30am and almost time for breakfast. This happened again at 5:30. Eventually, 7:45 rolled around and it truly was time to get showered and ready for our 8am breakfast.
Luca had prepared a nice spread for us, even though he had been partying the night before. It was a surprise party, which was wonderful. However, he’s a vegetarian and with a chuckle, he characterized the food at the event as “traditional Italian food…meat, meat, meat everywhere.” For our breakfast, he prepared scrambled eggs to go with the cereal, yogurt, fresh strawberries, cheese and sausage, cake, breads and marmelatta croissant. The Illy coffee was so delicious, we had two cups each.
The people of Treviso made our departure a bit of a challenge, in a very good way. They kept engaging with us! First, we asked Luca for a photo so he snapped this selfie. We were laughing because, well, that’s just how conversations with Luca are!
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Then his partner, Andreas, dropped by to wish us a good trip and ask again if we were thinking of riding the Stelvio. Side note here: when we were doing introductions after check-in yesterday, Andreas who’s 20 years younger than us, asked us if we were going to be cycling any big passes. We said yes, and the biggest of all would be the Stelvio. His answer cracked us up. He threw his hands up in the air and exclaimed, “Jesus Christ... Really? …Jesus Christ! It was hard enough to ride the Vespa up there!” We howled with laughter and then listed off the other major cols we have ridden in the Alps and the Pyrenees. He just shook his head in disbelief.
Next came Alberto, who came out of his boutique shoe shop and asked what part of Canada we were from. He practically fell over when we told him. He had visited Campbell River in 2012 and had the time of his life fishing in the Campbell River with the bears and the eagles. “That was my playground as a kid and my elementary school was right there” I told him. He began gushing about his fishing adventures as he fondly remembered his visit, reminding us that we really do live in a special part of the world.
We finally shoved off after that “small world” moment, but only to the piazza, where we simply had to take a shot of the buildings with the morning sun on them.
I crossed the street and Alberto came out of his store again, asking me to come and see his new bike. I went into the store and there was his latest pride and joy, a Brompton gravel bike. It turns out he is an avid cyclist and adores his Bromptons.
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It is a really cool bike and it just so happens that our buddy, Keith Classen, is about to pounce and enter the Brompton world, too. I knew Keith would have been thrilled to be there, as it was quite the endorsement.
So finally, I head back to the piazza and David tells me how he just had a long conversation with an older gentleman, the nicest fellow! Too bad it was all in Italian, which isn’t so bad as you can usually pick up the gist of it. It reminded us of many similar conversations we’ve had over the years of our European cycle tours.
With that, we pushed off and followed the route suggested by our GPS devices to exit Treviso to the north. It led us past some of the most beautiful buildings, like this one. Aren't those Venetian styled windows gorgeous?
So, there is one saga that still lingers from our trip from YVR. Remember the CATSA staff who couldn’t open the unlocked suitcases? They shuffled the folded bike around to lift out a part David had stored under the bike, but obviously were not able to properly re-position the bike in the case. They probably jumped on the case to force it closed. The net result is the front rim is scraped on my bike and they bent the front brake rotor. What a shoddy performance on their part.
So, I have been riding with a disc pad that rubs against the rotor with every revolution of the wheel. No amount of loosening off the brake has helped, which tells you how much they bent it. We haven’t had time in Treviso to address the problem, so today we tried a couple of places on our way out of town. Here’s the first bike shop we tried, a Pinarello store.
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We checked out a second bike store, but they didn’t have the expertise today aka, it’s the mechanic’s day off. This isn’t rocket science but it does require a specialized tool and some know-how. We will be staying two nights at our next destination so we decided to get our butts in gear and deal with it later. With that, we set off on a glorious, picture perfect day of cycling towards the Prosecco Hills.
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Once again, the cycle.travel route paid off. It located and connected many small roads through the vineyards, along canals, and through small villages. It was a picture perfect route and ride today.
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After Conegliano, where we stopped for a panini and lemon soda, we arrived at the first hills of the trip. I was patting myself on the back for summiting the first long hill with a 10% grade that I didn’t notice I was supposed to turn left and keep on climbing. Instead, I gleefully sailed over the top and down the other side, only to notice the GPS was busily re-routing me back up the hill 😜. I’m still learning how to use this new technology. And what did David do? He followed me. Sorry, partner!
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As we got closer to the pre-alps (and throughout the day) our route tracked along the Munich-Venice Cycleway. This region is very fertile and is cross-crossed by canals and dykes. It was so incredibly peaceful, with just the sound of birds singing in the trees and water burbling through ancient weirs and channels.
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I will stop now….. 😉
2 weeks ago
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On the outskirts of Vittoria Veneto, there were quite a number of old factory buildings, which I expect had harnessed the energy from the rushing waters. Some of these buildings have been marked for housing and others have already been renovated for businesses and housing. I am not sure if the train services the town but if it does, I think the housing would be a hot seller.
Here’s the video summary of this fabulous ride today.
We had estimated our arrival time as 3:00pm and it was 2:50 when we arrived at our B&B. Alessandra welcomed us to her home, circa early 16th C. After settling in for a rest and shower, we strolled to the historic Serravalle town square for a family style dinner of green salads, pasta and a shared panna cotta.
I will have more to say about the history of these two towns tomorrow as it is very significant but I can confidently say it’s not well known by fellow North Americans of our generation. I’m learning as I go, as well.
Today's ride: 53 km (33 miles)
Total: 92 km (57 miles)
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