Canzo – Vignarello 87.31km đ´đźââď¸ 4.41.15 âą18.6km/hr âŹď¸ 265m âŹď¸ 495m đĄ28C
After a sweet breakfast, burned croissant đĽwith marmelade inside (đ¤˘), we left the B&B around 7.45am. We had a long day ahead of us and we are gonna see Suuz her parents today so we planned to arrive early. Well that plan was trash can đmaterial. There was not a lot of climbing today, but everything came in the first stretch. Very steep, mostly shorter uphills that took us forever. It was also really busy on the road and there wasnât a lot of space for us. All and all it wasnât the day start we had hoped for. We cycled South from lake Como, in between Milan and Turin, so we figured it would be busy, but it was also boring. There was hardly any distraction. Except for the cars đđ.Â
When we cycled into CantĂš there was a new point of irritation. One way streets âď¸. Apparently we did something wrong with the route on our bike app (we had accidentally changed the setting to âwalkingâ), so the app kept sending us into one way streets. Well we donât mind being a little rebellious, but in narrow Italian streets with Italian drivers we kind of looked like a suicide squad. Sometimes we did take the street or cycled on the side walk, which sometimes functions as a bike path, or we just took a detour and got a little lost before finding another one way street. Anyway, we were frustrated. Luckily we found a bakery who made the Italian version of a krentebol and we crashed at a bar for an espresso so life was good again for a while.
When we thought it couldnât get any worse, it did. We hit a road that looked more like a highway đŁthan anything else, for sure we were not gonna cycle on that thing, but either way we had to cross it. We closed our eyes and just went for it. Careful not to lose a limb or some brain cells đ§ we made it to the other side safely and cycled on.
There were a few more times we had to do this, but luckily there were a couple friendly Italian dudes who stopped to let us cross. Another time, just after Misinto (or âMissing a toeâ) we literally cycled into a grassy field to avoid a part of the busy road. On the far end of the field we found a small, but luckily dry, âslootâ we had to push the bikes through to get back onto the real road on the other side. This was pretty funny.
friend we lost today was tailwind đ¨. He was replaced by headwind đ¨. We donât like headwind that much, heâs annoying. Especially on a flat day like today in open field we wanted headwind gone.. but noooo he just kept irritating us. And if it wasnât him it were the cars speeding by. Or one of the million stop đ signs we hit today. It costs so much energy to stop and go all the time. Especially with these heavy bikes. It wasnât all negative, a little town gave us a bike path, so nice of them. But then they thought it was a great idea to decorate the little bushy area right next to the bike path with piles and piles of broken glass! Which bright light đĄdid the road planning here??
In some village I canât even remember the name of we had a tostini and a cold drink. It was getting pretty hot again in the flatlands. The drink was nice, but the tosti was not, so Mas didnât even finish it. And if you think it got any more interesting after this? Well it didnât. We did find a bike path lined with blueberry plants for a short while and for sure that was nice, but other than that it was like cycling next to the A12. Mas was expecting to pass the new train station đLansingerland-Zoetermeer, but it never showed up. Which isnât that weird since we are in Italy and not in Holland.
Well after this happy road we had to cross this bridge together with a parade of trucks đđ. Just after Suuz mentioned the road wasnât too bad apparently the traffic light đŚa bit further down changed to green and the stream never stopped. Unlike the roadâs shoulder, that thing did stop, oh the joy. Luckily the road got better when we cycled through this insanely stinky industrial đzone. For the ones who canât read sarcasm, this was it.
With only a few more kilometres to go we were absolutely sick of this road and cut it short by cycling into farmland again. Our bikes slipped a lot on the fine gravel road and made it just a little more heavy then it already was in the burning sun, but at least no other desperate souls decided to take this road so we were all alone.
And then it finally came to an end. We arrived at the agriturismo in the middle of nowhere. Normally this is a problem for us, but we have a car đ tonight. Well we donât have one, but Suuz her parents arrived and they will take care of us. At least we hope they will. Joking, we know they will â¤ď¸. And otherwise we are invited to this wedding taking place at the same agriturismo we are staying at. Not by the bride đ°đť or groomđ¤ľđ˝, but by the guy who runs the place, little weird but might be nice to crash a wedding.Â
Jan and Karin took us for lunch in some town. It was a little hard to find something still serving lunch or a simple sandwich đĽŞafter one oâclock in Italy, but we found something in the end. Afterwards we walked around in the cute little town of Vigevano and got some awesome gelato đ§. And we got to learn you apparently canât enjoy gelato in the house of the lord. At least the priest had us removed from the church. It does seem weird since gelato is so heavenly. We went back to the hotel for some relaxing time before dinner đ˝ and to check out the married couple.
After a nice afternoon nap we got back into the car and drove to a restaurant that specializes in goose. Unfortunately for Mas they didnât have a vegetarian version of goose. We enjoyed some lovely dishes, including ravioli with eggplant đ, Parmesan cheese and smoked ricotta, vitello tonato, a goose leg đŚľcooked for 12 hours, ravioli with pulled goose, and spinach flan with burrata. Accompanied with a lovely Pinot Grigio ramato from Trentino (reminding Mas how much she misses her Ramato race đ˛) and later a Barbera dâAsti đˇ. Speaking of Asti, thatâs where we are headed tomorrow!
