Tuesday, September 22, 2009—Belluno, Italy

We have reached the point in our trip where we need to slow down. Our flight back to Ireland will take off Friday evening, which means we have four days to get to the airport. But the Marco Polo International Airport (Venice) is only around 100 miles away, which should not take four days. So today we stopped after only 24 miles at Belluno, a pleasant but rather ordinary city and capital of the Dolomite area of northern Italy.

To use the word grandeur to describe the Dolomites is perhaps using a cliché, but it is an apt one. The roads follow deep valleys cut through massive mountains which tower over the rivers and roads below. The valleys end, of course, and when they do there is a pass to climb to get to the next valley—which means first a climb then a downhill run. The mountain slopes are steep and peaked, often consisting of bare rock which glistens in the morning or evening sunlight.

The short ride from Cimolais began with an uphill pull over a steep rise then a wonderful ride down the other side, past several small villages and one massive dam and reservoir. When the road reached the town of Longarone it turned south and changed from a beautiful rugged rural road to a heavily traveled main artery. And because of the character of the topography it was necessary to take that road almost all the way to our stopping point—a rather anticlimactic end to a remarkably beautiful day.

Sunday, September 20, 2009—outside Musil, Italy

Today Brian and I cycled to Slovenia for lunch. We began the day in Tarvisio, Italy, crossed Predil Pass into Slovenia, descended a long and steep downhill into a beautiful valley and stopped in Bovec for a pizza. It was the best pizza of the trip, but don’t tell the Italians.

The mountains of northern Slovenia are massive. They are officially called the Julian Alps, and rise to awesome heights above the valleys below. In the valleys are villages and fields that have existed for centuries, but now they are tourist destinations. People come for the scenery, the outdoors activities, and just to enjoy themselves. Like northern Italy, northern Slovenia has become a mecca for motorcycles, and signs on many of the stores we passed had prominent posters declaring Bikers Welcome.

After our lunch stop we debated about where to go—south to southern Slovenia and Croatia, or back west into Italy. Both were good options but Italy won out, and, after a few more miles following the river in Slovenia, we turned back west, up a pass similar to the one we had come down earlier in the day, towards Italy. The map we have was slightly deceptive as it did not indicate how far and how steep our climb would be, but we made it—not quickly but steadily.

Arriving again in Italy we began our descent towards Udine, but soon stopped for a soda at an outdoors family and sports center. As we sat there enjoying the sodas and soaking in the sun, the beautiful mountain scenery and the quiet of the nearly deserted road we were traveling, we decided to spend the night. The owner-manager of the center said that they were only open for weekends after mid September, but that if we wanted he would make a room available for us, the chef would cook a dinner, and his wife would come in the morning to make us breakfast. It was a good deal, and an enjoyable change from the towns and villages we have stopped in until now, so we did it. Then, as we added up the mileage of the day and saw that it was only 36, one of our shortest days, we also noted that our journey that day did move us past the 1000 mile mark for our travels. An accomplishment to celebrate!

The dinner was excellent, featuring local specialties, and Brian and I have been left alone to spend the night and tend to the place. The staff (owner-manager and cook) have gone home and left us instructions as to how to call them if a problem develops. Rather unusual but just fine. And welcome to Italy…