Now in Levico Terme

this from our GPS on our way here.....whaaat??!!

Levico Terme wasn't on our original list but, as posted before, a host decided to gussump us without bothering to let us know so  we had to do a hasty re-think.  Actually probably a better location for us, truth be told!😎 Our apartment here is a bit small but at least we have somewhere at a time when most places are booked out.

Saturday pm in Levico..post wedding  pix??

Valsugana bike path  pix..50 km there and 50 back

 recommended..flat,well used by all levels of riders

great vistas all along the way

Lago (!)

respect the cyclist

I got a bit lost on the way back..couldn't find the bike path in Borgo Valsugana ...a kind motorcyclist gave me instructions...however he told me  to turn left at the "last set of traffic lights" 😁..and I knew they were the last set .....how......?

Later in the day there was a very noisy thunderstorm but by that time both Alex and I were safe indoors.

Sadly Alex's coffee maker has turned it's toes up so I guess we're off to find another one tomorrow..after all we have 3 boxes of Lavazzo capsules waiting to be used....

Lombardia to Trentino

Our holidays to date have been .....eating,  sleeping, training (and for Alex cough cough coughing) and dramas!

#1 drama was getting trapped between a barrier and locked gate..see previous post
#2 drama was finding ourselves homeless see below copied from my FB page:

"today I emailed our next destination to find out what time to arrive and discovered to my horror.....that our booking had been cancelled some time ago by the host..although neither I nor booking.com knew .....no email,nothing.. 🙃. A few urgent phone calls and internet searches later and despite the last minute dash and the busy season thankfully we are now booked into an apartment on the other side of Trento in Levico Terme..phew!😅...E..nuf"


Of note is that she claims there was an "overbooking" issue but that hardly rings true as I made my booking in September last year!

Luigi Ganna..1st Giro d'Italia winner and Alfredo Binda multi winner..both born locally

Swiss border

Svizzera

can this learner driver sign get any bigger..does it block some rear vision?

unusually a bit of flat road!

 Castello Cabiaglio...685 residents, 3 (!) churches , 1 bar/cafe, 1 restaurant, 1 holiday rental apartment block, 1 BnB but no castle.  Many varied rides in the area..flattish, steep to very steep, undulating etc etc and a great place to stay out of Varese city, which  for me is a place to avoid.  It's also close to the AIS Europe centre and apparently Mitchelton Scott's  headquarters

Castello Cabiaglio

Our journey here was uneventful until we got to the Famila supermarket at Varese  and then this happened (copied from my post on Facebook)

Drama report!: culprit......me. 
I was driving down a ramp into a supermarket's car park and was *perhaps* 😉 following the car in front just a leeetle bit too closely and so didn't realise that I'd missed the supermarket's car park entrance and was driving into a private car park... Oooops! 
I did a quick reverse but a barrier had gone down behind us and then a locked gate slid into place in front of us! We were trapped! 
Panic..what to do??!! the 2 options were...either wait for another car to enter the private car park, thereby opening the barrier for us ...but hey, that could be a loooong wait or go and get help from the supermarket people. 
Well...belts and braces...we did both (just as well I speak a bit of Italian eh!) and finally, probably 30 minutes later we were let out of prison..both by another car tripping the barrier and also by the supermarket people finding a key.......for my next trick?

what a riot!..a bit angst making at the time...how long would we have to wait...so lucky there were 2 of us..so glad I could explain my plight to the non-English speaking security guard ....but afterwards..v funny.

Our apartment is on the 3rd floor so there was much climbing of stairs with a mega amount of gear and of course getting the bikes up and downstairs before and after each ride..but it's all good for fitness....I guess!

No apartment is perfect...well not quite true..there have been 2..one in Cortina d'Ampezzo and 1 in Feltre but this one has an unusual problem..great set up with his and hers basins...but..gets a bit hard putting the contact lens in....!

The differences between Veneto and here with regard to garden furniture is very obvious to me...where are the carved wooden animals, the scarecrows, the other things I so happily stop to record in Veneto????....nothing, nothing nothing.  However here are 2 pix from yesterday's ride:

that was a bit of a surprise..very busy road so no close up

great name!

Transition day or as we call it..lemming day

caution cyclists training

Plenty of training for me, but Alex has had a virus all week and so has missed out. Today we move from Mellame  in the hills above Feltre to Castello Cabiaglio in the hills above Varese. We have a 4 hour drive alongside all the tourists doing exactly what we are doing.....being lemmings.

 I will miss watching the tree  in the tower, but not the regular church bell ringing!!

Mellame..our house is the pink one almost dead centre

Mellame church tower +tree!

Feltre..Giro stage city

Ciao...on the road to Faller

Sooo much pink

Our Castello accommodation is well know to us..it's the third time I've been there..the first time to check it out to ensure it was fine for the World Masters TT champs last year...it was! Because we are well known now we don't have to hang around waiting for our hostess to arrive..the side door will be unlocked as will our apartment.

2nd long ride of the holiday

Almost 80 km with 700m of climbing.....this time from where we are to Valdobbiadene...one of the centres of Prosecco wine making.

So once again..and with any excuse to have a mini rest, it was photo opp time......  On the way there and back I passed this cafe/restaurant where someone in the family spends the long winter hours carving wood and who also  seem very determined that their parking place is for the parking cars of clients and not for anything else!

wood  carving seems to be a local passtime

I was "P"edalling..but other actions beginning with "P" were clearly not welcome:

a loaner word...and yet not quite

Mountain weather is dramatic

So yesterday was a bit wet ..what an understatement..it was pretty dramatic actually and so was declared a rest from the bike day....but I had to test my new Garmin (other one died) so  I went out for a 20 min  spin in a dryish spell which sadly and probably predictably  quickly turned into a very wettish spell and I got soaked......despite it only getting really really wet for the final 5 minutes, I was a drowned rat. We even  had to buy some newspapers to stuff in my shoes!

Today  there were blue skies and I went out for a long ride..77km..I was pretty ruined by the end..it's the longest I've done in over a year.  But..any excuse for a pause and so here  are a few pix and since the Giro d'Italia passed through Feltre twice there are naturally  loads of pink pix...(the leader/winner gets to wear a pink jersey).

Palio advert and pink bikes..hope it got on TV!

the things you miss by always travelling in a car

Dolomiti in the background

so many quirky garden decorations..no gnomes though

2km up is where we are staying

just before the steep bit and where I start to falter

near Pedavena..with the famous birreria on the left

kermit rode the giro?

Here we go again

You know you're almost on hols when you cancel both Zwift and Netflix!  

After 5 weeks of long exhausting hours working for the Federal Election I am now over fat and under fit.  A somewhat extreme example of the long hours  is that on the last day of pre-polling I worked from 0730 until 23:45 and then started work  the next day ... election day.... at 0700, finishing that day at 2230! The end result was only 1 day on the bike in those 5 weeks...BUT I didn't get sick.  No touristy type places this year..just loads of training in an effort to be fit enough not to get dropped in the neutral part of the races in Austria!

This year's itinerary is firstly in Italy..and all in the north of the country...

Feltre is again our hub and we are super grateful to Isabella and Silvio, our hosts there who have  kindly allowed us to leave our extra stuff in their garage since last September.

I look forward to riding these particular roads again ( both photos borrowed from FB):

After staying in Feltre for a while..well actually Mellame a very small village waaay above Feltre, our first stop is a return to Castello Cabiaglio in the Varese area.
  

We're staying at the same place as last year which will allow me to return the scissors I managed to walk off with!  

Then we travel north and east  to Brentonico, south of Trento a small town   on the plateau above  lake Garda..hopefully I'll learn where to place the accent on the place name..BrentONico or BrentoNIco..I suspect the former although even my Italian teacher wasn't sure, 

Then a bit further north to Kurtinig an der Weinstrasse, which is again a very small town, hopefully within reach of some decent rides, followed by Bressanone AKA Brixen , then into the Dolomiti firstly to Colfosco AKA Calfosch(Ladin) and  Kolfuschg (German)  and finally Moena (Moena/Moyen) before returning briefly to Feltre to pick up bike boxes etc.  

Then into the serious part of the hols... Hartberg for racing , Budapest 'cos we have a few spare days, Sankt Johann in Tirol for racing  and finally Oudenaarde to ride the roads of the cobbled classics and also to visit  WW1 sites and monuments...we've been there before but have decided a re-visit  would be worthwhile.  
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This year since I'm not taking my time trial bike we have a fair amount of luggage allowance to play with..we've just got to make sure we don't get tempted and pack the kitchen sink!

I'm leaving on a jet plane....will I manage a points upgrade again??

more anon