Saluzzo to Cuneo

August 25, 2016

We cycle to Cuneo and stop at a campground with 4Ts and a P rating.

August 25 Thursday 41kms

Saluzzo to Cuneo

We cycle to Cuneo and stop at a campground with 4Ts and a P rating.

We leave the ostelli by the twisting back road past farms and nectarine orchards, scoring a few more windfalls. This route avoids the suicidally fast and heavy traffic on the main road. Saluzzo, a beautiful hillside town hovers in the distance as we cycle towards it and proves to be even more impressive on closer inspection.

Kiwi fruit grow in great profusion around Saluzzo. Some vines appeared quite healthy, others looked as though they’d been abandoned.

I attempt a chat with a local, explaining that we too, are Kiwi. At first he looks confused, then he seems to latch on to the idea.

Saluzzo’s civilised main street where a coffee and pastry won’t set you back an arm and a leg.

Its wide main street is lined with high shuttered buildings and cafes with shady umbrellas. At one of these we halt to regather ourselves and enjoy two coffees and croissants for the princely sum of 3euros. The heat of the day is growing as we head south trying to find a quieter cycle route away from the trucks which seem to pound along many of the smaller roads. In France a D road is usually truck free- not so in Italy. Most drivers are really good but the noise and size gets to be unnerving. Eventually we worked out a quiet route and take a lunch stop in the shade at Castigliole.

We reached Cuneo by mid afternoon. It’s is a largish town, strategically placed between two rivers, the Stura and Gesso.

Costigliole Saluzzo. We eventually found that these small paths through the crops meant avoiding mixing it with the big boys in trucks.

A number of these towns provided important fortifications for past controllers of the area. Cuneo has a bridge with 7 arches called by the locals ‘the devil’s bridge’ since it was put up so quickly and skilfully that only the devil, it was thought, could have accomplished such a feat. The town features a massive main square built after Napoleon destroyed the town walls- with its neoclassical style, it’s supposed to reflect the wealth of a silk manufacturing town. At the info centre we meet Elisa who has good English and plenty of knowledge of the town and its environment, as well as information about the walks in the mountains. She takes our photo for publicity purposes though I don’t imagine it will be adorning any posters, though three years ago we did end up featured in a French tourist mag.

Bisalta camping is every camping cyclists dream- 4 Ts and a P- toilet paper, toilet seats, tables and trees plus a POOL- bathing caps required.

Home away from home. The 4Ts + P campground.

And so here we set up for the next four days, getting to know some of the other campers, exploring the town and local trails, cooling off in the pool and marvelling at how many of the little boys sound just like Toto in ‘Cinema Paradiso’. We have a few rudimentary conversations with them, though their English is pretty basic (like our Italian). German children, by contrast, mostly seem quite fluent in English. All the same, the way even young children can accomplish the elongation of some of the vowels and the rolling out of the rrr is a delight to hear.

Today's ride: 41 km (25 miles)
Total: 3,316 km (2,059 miles)

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