Vignarello – Asti 94.28km 🚴♀️ 5.05.45 ⏱18.5km/hr ⬆️ 500m (660m on Strava) ⬇️ 410m 🌡33C
After a good but a little short night of sleep we wake up to the leftovers of the wedding 👰🏻🤵🏽. It didn’t look like it was the wildest party ever, we were also not rudely awakened by party noises, so we did not have to wade our way through all kinds of celebration material to get to breakfast. Breakfast wasn’t much, but after some pushing we got some fruit as well. I guess the wedding guests had finished most of the food. We both stuffed two of our bike bags in the car of Suuz her parents and took off on our slightly lighter bikes. Chased away by the millions of mosquitos 🦟attacking us the minute we stepped out the door 🚪. Some nasty ones molested Suuz her shoulder blades during last night’s dinner. The suffering of wearing a dress 👗. We waved goodbye to Jan and Karin, but only for a few hours, since we had plans to have lunch together.
It was already hot and humid so the sweating started early today. We cycled in between rice fields for many kilometres. Nothing like the Asian rice terraces, but really flat, bright green and very wet. The rice they grow is used to make risotto! The fields probably explain the armies of mosquitoes that kept attacking us 🦟, even on the bike.
Since it was mostly flat we killed a lot of kilometres the first two hours until we crossed the Po river and slowly saw the hills appear in front of us. Not too long after we exchanged the small quiet roads for a busy one, a car slowed down in front of us. Jan and Karin passed us in their cool rental car 🚙. Karin yelled out the window: “We’ll see you at town square”. Which meant we were gonna meet each other in Castella Monferatto for a quick coffee ☕️. And so we did. Suuz found a coffee place on our route and send the gps coordinates to her parents. Life is great in the era of the Internet.
We had our daily espresso, we actually have multiple espressos a day, and cake 🍰 and pizza 🍕, had a nice chat and then left to start the next 40 kilometers. We had agreed to meet for lunch in Asti. It would take us about 2.5 hours to get there since we were gonna go from the Po river flats into the Piedmont hills. And cause of the heat and humidity it was going to be intense. It was absolutely beautiful though. Mostly wine 🍷, but also fruit trees 🍎🍐and sunflowers 🌻and corn 🌾🌽. At some point we rode through truffle areas with signs everywhere saying we were not allowed to go digging. Too bad, Suuz had her shuffle out and was ready to go. On top of each hill there was a cute little village with its own church ⛪️ or castle 🏰. So it was heavy, but so worth it.
In Asti Jan and Karin were already waiting for us and we had a good lunch of salads 🥗, pizza 🍕and fresh tagliolini with truffle for Suuz and with salmon and herbs for Mas. We were just in time to order our lunch, since everything closes for siesta after like 2 o’clock or something.
From the restaurant it was only 6km to the horse 🐎 farm we would be staying at. Six hot kilometres with the last kilometer only uphill. Not just uphill but this insane climb on a gravel road that quickly became a grassy trail lined with prickly rose 🥀bushes. A swarm of crickets 🦗jumped up from the grass against our legs 🦵. It was no option to stop since we would never have been able to get back onto the bikes 🚲again. After some time we finally made it all the way up. Thank god we had put the right address in so it wasn’t all for nothing. We checked in, put on our bikini 👙and sprinted towards the swimming pool to take a good and long dip. Mas saved some drowning crickets 🦗and ladybugs 🐞from the pool since it looked like they were in need.
Afterwards we chilled for a bit in a beach chair, had a cold beer 🍺 and played a game (wurms) with Suuz her parents. We decided to have dinner 🍽 at the agriturismo since none of us really felt like driving up that crazy thing that some might call a road in the dark. The only thing was we had to wait until 8.30pm, so Suuz and I tried not to eat everything that was in our bags (which wasn’t a lot this time). The place we are staying at is an old horse 🐎farm. They still have horses 🐴, but also rent out rooms. And make dinner. It’s a family business where the mom is the hostess and dishwasher, the son cooks and the daughter is the waiter. We think the dad takes care of the horses but we did not actually see him work so maybe he is just lazy and pockets the big bucks 💰.
The Piedmont region is known for its beautiful beef 🥩🍖, so it is a little tricky for Mas but the lady took good care of us once we sat down for dinner. The food was pretty good, local and fresh. Instead of the gorgeous beef carpaccio with olio oliva, parmigiano and sea salt the others had as a primi, Mas was served a traditional dish of poached egg in a delicious vinaigrette. After finishing our meal the people were really friendly and forced a glass of Grappa 🍸on Jan so he was dancing 🕺till the morning light. Together with some other party animals cause we went to bed with house music and wake up with the same tunes still going strong.
Tomorrow is already the day Jan and Karin fly back home 😔. We will cycle to La Morra where we will have another afternoon and evening with Lotte and Lars, the folks you know from our time in Valtellina.
Heerlijk om onze tijd samen zo nog eens door te lezen en de foto’s te bekijken 🥰