Mum had never been to Venice, and nor had Sarah, so after leaving Trieste, we made our way to a hotel within striking distance. Arriving mid-afternoon, I assembled the bikes, but put more than the advertised 5Nm into my seat clamp (or, it was getting tired and could no longer cope with that). Luckily, I'd packed a spare, which I gingerly installed.
It took most of a 58km ride to get over that, but eventually I stopped dwelling on it, and started enjoying turning the pedals over. We first rode to a ferry terminal from which we could see Venice in the middle of the lagoon, and then rode into Venice itself. While bikes are not welcome beyond a certain point, you can ride right up to where the local buses drop people off. It was useful to scope things out for a family mission the next day.
Once back with Mum, we went in search of dinner. I declined to head down a narrow alley to a highly rated restaurant, but soon after saw a sign advertising "Italian Street Food". We agreed to give this a shot, and were soon strolling past stall after stall, selling all manner of things other than local fare. I decided we must have missed some punctuation, e.g. "Italian Street: Food" might have been more appropriate. That said, we did in the end find a stall that sold incredibly arancini and a pretty decent carbonara.
After enjoying the hustle-bustle for a bit, we got fleeced at an impressive liquorice stall, before returning home with our tails between our legs.
The next morning, upon hearing that the bus from our hotel to Venice was 9 Euro per person each way, we thought we'd take our chances with the parking building Sarah and I had scoped out the evening before. The pricing there turned out to be a flat daily rate of 35 Euro, but at least it was cheaper than the bus, and way more time efficient.
We got all-you-can eat "bus" passes (boats, of course), and then spent a lovely few hours sightseeing.
Once we'd had our fill, we headed back to the car, and plotted a route vaguely towards our next accommodation. I wanted to divert into Padua, to see if I could find a replacement seatpost clamp. A small shop recommended Decathlon, and while they didn't have the right item, Sarah enjoyed a bit of shopping instead! Their check-out system was pretty amazing - a bin, into which you dumped all of the things you were buying, from which it sorted out how much you needed to pay - no scanning necessary!
Rain had started by the time we reach our digs, but even had it been dry, I don't think I'd have mustered the energy to suit up for a spin.
We had porridge for breakfast, and I enjoyed doing the dishes, not least because the "dish-rack" consisted of an entire cupboard above the sink!
That done, we got ready to set off. We were in the shadow of Monte Grappa, but in scoping out a loop around it, I'd stumbled upon the fact that the base of Croce d'Aune was on the loop. All up, it looked like it might be a long day, but with only the single major climb, I hoped it wouldn't be too arduous.
Cycling is well and truly celebrated in these parts, and it was fun to see remnants of the recent Giro d'Italia. As it turned out, Stage 15 passed through here only a few weeks ago.
I noticed a bike shop - Biron Bike - and decided to stop to see if they had a seat clamp. While the fellow was searching (to no avail), I enjoyed looking at some of his souvenirs from his past life as a pro race mechanic. He even has a range of bikes in his name.
Our route to the base of the Croce d'Aune left much to be desired, and we were on a main road for most of the way. After a stop for coffee and some pizza in Feltre, we got stuck into the climb. Traffic was very light, with the highlight being a tractor on a tractor.
As we climbed in the heat, I mentioned to Sarah that I thought she'd be safe "pretending that you're in New Zealand" - the shady side of the road tended to be the wrong side!
The climb was almost entirely in forest, but occasionally we got cracking views that only hill climbs can bring. It is no wonder that I love them so much.
The pass at Croce d'Aune caught me by surprise, as it wasn't at the top of the climb I'd mapped out. In any case, we stopped to admire the Tullio Campagnolo sculpture. Inner Ring has a very interesting account of the history here, and if true, the inspiration for the quick release lever came from an ascent of this very climb! I'd worn Oli's classic colours, complete with Campag logo, especially for this moment.
After a pick me up at the adjacent bar, we spent another few minutes climbing, which again, afforded lovely views.
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Then, we got stuck into the descent, during which we'd peel off about 700 vertical metres, on a near deserted road. Of cars, that is - poor Sarah got stung by a wasp near the top, and then ended up with another biting thing in her jersey...
Once on the main road, we were able to bypass a 1km-long tunnel, which was fascinating. The tunnel wouldn't have been too bad as it was on a descent, but we passed some spectacular cliffs, a waterfall, and I even saw a metre long snake scurrying off the road.
Very soon after we rejoined the main road, I noticed a cycle-route sign, and thought we'd be crazy not to follow it. We deviated significantly from the route I'd mapped near Arsie, where we stopped for gelati and to contemplate which way to proceed. In the end, it proved to be a great choice to stick with the cycle route, as aside from some lovely quiet road, it provided some real highlights.
After quite a long loop in the wrong direction, we found ourselves riding down a series of fortified switchbacks, something I've never seen before in all my years of switchback riding.
Next up was a lovely bit of old railway line alongside a river, deep in a gorge. It was really busy with riders, including families, cycle tourists, and fully kitted out roadies. At the end was a cafe that wasn't able to entice us in, despite knowing we'd be very welcome indeed.
We had a fair way still to ride, but it was down valley, and while we were riding into a light-headwind, gravity and my great gelato-legs were making easy work of it (gelato-legs are not to be confused with jelly-legs, which make for poor progress...!!!). It probably also helped that the surroundings were wonderful - a mix of natural features, as well as an assortment of infrastructure and dwellings.
I got a little bit navigationally confused as we approached Bassano del Grappa, but after a short back-track, we crossed the river on a pedestrian bridge (sitting on top of a canal...!) before beginning the eastward climb up to our village on the flanks of Monte Grappa.
Above us were a couple of dozen paragliders, which my camera did a poor job of capturing...
We soon joined our driving route of the afternoon prior, and as we got close to home, things were even more familiar courtesy of a supermarket run. We needn't have stopped in for another box of pistacchio gelato (pronounced "piss-tar-key-oh" here) - we got home to find our hostess had stashed three epic bowls of panna cotta in our fridge while we were all out...! The gelato will live to fight another day.
More Giro remnants to distract during the final minutes of the ride, and then it was time to find out what Mum had been up to.
Our accommodation is adjacent to a pizzeria, which we'd planned to go to for dinner (it was closed the night prior). We'd been warned it was popular, and that was no exaggeration. We did manage to get a table, and had three delicious and very well priced pizza for dinner. Perhaps that along explains the popularity, but we look forward to quizzing our hostess (and thanking her profusely for the dessert) tomorrow.
Stats: Venice shakedown ride was 59 pan-flat km. a The Croce d'Aune loop was 120km, with total climbing of just over 1700m. This was the longest ride of the trip so far, and it provided clear evidence that we've got fitter! Temperature range 24 to 36 degrees. 3 stings for Sarah.
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