Monster Grappa

"We shouldn't be too long" was about the last thing I said to Mum when we left for a short loop including the summit of Monte Grappa.  Famous last words...!

Rather than head down the main drag, we climbed higher onto the flank of the mountain before traversing on some lovely wee road through to the base of the climb.  

We were both feeling a little under-nourished, so we took a short detour, and soon had demolished additional coffee, and a cornetto for me.  I also grabbed a couple of baked goodies to takeaway.  A sign across the road read "Cima Grappa 27" and my Strava route suggested something like a 1500m climb.  A whopper by any definition.  

It was hot already, and the first switchback and the road leading to and from it, suggested we weren't going to get a lot of shade.    

On the other hand, the gradient was very nice, enough to eat into the remaining vert, but not so steep regular climbing out of the saddle was necessary.  

Even though the trees below the road weren't offering much shade, they were mostly obscuring the view over Bassano del Grappa - the main town in these parts.  But, from time to time, we did get views, and on one occasion I paused to watch one of many paragliders already out and about.  

I'd stop to wait for Sarah every 20 minutes or so, and I had plenty of time to enjoy the road and its features.  I enjoyed a very short tunnel that had alcoves painted per the Italian flag, and which was sporting some nasty scars from an oversized vehicle.  

As the road shifted onto the western face of the mountain, we enjoyed great views over the Brenta River, and I could even make out the pedestrian bridge we'd used towards the end of the previous day's ride.  

When Sarah joined me, she reported being a bit low on energy, and so we promptly consumed the only food we were carrying.  About 15 minutes later, we came upon an open Osteria, and ordered some pizza for lunch - this was already proving to be slow going.  

The pizza took a while to be served, but was bloody delicious, packed with tomato, mozzarella and basil.  Acqua (frizzante) washed it down nicely.  

As we were leaving, the signage suggested we were now "only" 10km from the summit.  Woohoo!

Monte Grappa was the scene of some fierce battles between the Italians and the Austo-Hungarian Empire during World War 1.  I stopped at a monument to discover that the bend was named "The lap of death", and only then noticed the pock-marks in the gully behind me - remnants of grenade craters.  

That was all pretty depressing, but it was impossible not to be cheered up by the abundant cows alongside the road.  The each wore a collar with a bell, and as they moved and chewed, the bells clunked, and when there were many cows together, they made a delightful racket.

I waited for Sarah just above a turnoff to Feltre, where we'd had lunch the day before.  I'd read that Monte Grappa has 10 distinct ascents, and had chosen the climb that was ridden during Stage 15 of this year's Giro.  I think the peloton probably turned off at this point, but we were heading further up!

We stopped to investigate a memorial to the Resistenza armata contra il nazifascismo, who no doubt had died valiantly on this hillside.  From there it was about another kilometre to the end of the road.  I went up to the summit on foot, leaving Sarah to have a rest in the carpark.  

It turned out my proposed route off the summit was a mere goat track, so we backtracked and took a left turn onto another sealed road.  We soon came to another intersection, and I scrolled my map a bit to discover it connected to the goat track! 

We took the turn, and found ourselves on an absolutely incredible piece of road.  First was a very narrow sidle, with a series of one lane tunnels.  

The drop to our right was often sheer, and we were given spectacular views down over the morning's traverse, and beyond.  

As if all this was not stimulation enough, once we'd rejoined our planned route, we found ourselves on a stunning rollercoaster ride down a small valley.  Whoever had built it really had a talent!

All good things must come to an end, and this sweetest section lead us onto a short, sharp climb which took us to the top of the main descent to our village.  Over the next 10km, we peeled off 1000 vertical metres, stopping regularly to let our brakes cool!  

Once back at base, we quickly got changed and went for a drive with Mum.  We managed to find a landing area for the paragliders, and watched three come in in quick succession.

We then headed for the river, and found the local Ponte Vecchio, which Mum knew was going to be nothing more than a wooden bridge.  From it, we could see the very spot that Sarah and I had taken photos some five hours earlier.  It was all very circular, given that the previous evening, we were crossing the same river on a bridge a few kilometres upstream.  

It was a bit of a bummer to keep Mum waiting for longer than we'd led her to expect.  But we had a lovely evening outing, and knocked back a very traditional Italian meal just before getting back to base.  Tomorrow, we move to our penultimate accommodation, in the hills just north of Lake Garda.  

Stats:  a mere 63km ridden, during which we climbed 2000m, two-thirds in a single ascent of Monstrous Monte Grappa.  Definitely more calories burnt than consumed.  And, we lucked out to descend what I bet is the most charming of the ten roads to the top of Monte Grappa, but probably hard to enjoy as a climb!

Back to the hills - Croce d'Aune

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.  

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.