We left Brixen around 8 after a cup of coffee and something from the bakery...I'm not going to say what...suffice it to say that I NEEDED to ride 50+ miles today.
We loved the bike path. It was well maintained, had a good surface, and allowed us to enjoy the riding without having to worry too much about whether or not we were headed in the right direction.
We were in Bolzano before noon and stopped just south of town to have a picnic lunch by the river. Yes, all of the pictures have sunshine...that's because the 60% chance of rain never showed up.
We rode through a series of tunnels and that was fun...reminded us of the Mosier Tunnels near Hood River. Several were long enough, and dark enough to warrant a light.
We also passed several castles. One was the castle Trostburg in Ponte Gardena. I understand there is a mural of the family tree that is quite impressive...many of the towns have towers in the center square with clocks that chime. I love that.
We passed a section of the trail that has featured some local art. Some of it is from grade school children, and some is from artists who are simply showcasing their work.
We didn't QUITE have complete directions to our airB&B place for the night, but we knew the town, the street, and the general direction. In fact, I had plugged the address into Google Maps on the iPad and it gave me a pretty good route, so we opted to get off the bike path a little early and onto the rural roads. Mezzocoronado and Mezzolombardo are wine growing regions. We climbed and descended, climbed and descended and finally came to Mezzolombardo. Sigh. We were on a busy street that was not marked with any signage and we hadn't seen a sign on this particular road for miles. None of the marked sidestreets I could see from the intersection where we were, remotely matched anything on the iPad. I was thirsty and tired of riding, so I went into a supermarket to buy something cold to drink (they didn't have anything cold to drink). When I came out, Patty had done something very smart. She had looked at the iPad where our destination was, seen the hospital marked, and punched the name of the hospital into her GPS. We were less than .2 of a mile from the hospital, less than .5 from our B&B. It STILL took awhile, because when there are few street signs, you just have to wing it, but we are here and it is wonderful.
Our host speaks English because she spent some time in London, and her youngest daughter is there now doing the same thing. She is encouraging her children to see the world even though family is very important to her. We had a glass of wine with her and her husband, and also speck, which is like prosciutto on steroids. The wine was made by her father and I liked it a lot. Made from Teroldego grapes, it is a red wine that is only grown in this area. We asked her to recommend a ristorante for us and she sent us to a place that serves a dish native to this area. It is like a large patty of hash browns, that you eat with prosciutto, cheese, onions, beans, and cabbage. Patty and I shared that entre and a salad and couldn't finish either.
Tomorrow will be a shorter day of riding for us, and we hope to visit a couple of museums in Trento before ending the day in Brancolino. I hope I can find it.
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