We have those also :) Worked great last year.

Hi Suzanne,

That seems odd. It’s Ltmcleod1 at gmail dot com.

i.e my first and second initial, l and t, my last name, the number one and then gmail and com.

Is your address with dot ca? What you gave me didn't work.

So great to hear that your adventure has had such a smooth start.

Just over 6 months in from your knee replacement (a recovery teamed together!) - impressive to indeed.

Inspired,
jill

Thanks Janez,
Sounds like you have quite a bit of experience in these area’s. Your hints will come in handy for sure.

Quite an endevour!
Allow me few hints to be considered (or not) on your trip:
Bergamo (IT) - just few meters before turning left to PortaNuova, on your right side is sandwich shop, called All'Antico Vinaio (originating from Firenze)
Bologna (IT) - after mortadella and lambrusco, you might have some energy left to climb to Madonna di San Luca. Chance to check climbing gearing! Or walk the endless portico stairway.
Dozza (IT) make a short detour from flat and straight way out of Bologna.
Forli (IT) drive through main square, do not detour.
Cesena (IT) when entering the town (weather and time permitting), have a lovely aperitivo at Com@bar (Vialle della Resistenca, just along your route). DO NOT book Hotel Bed & Bike (no bike storage).
Longiano (IT) well hidden beside the parking lot (Piazza 11 Octobre 1944), small bakery with perfect cookies!
On the way to Ravenna&Rimini, you have to taste fresh piedina.
Croatia and Slovenia: get in contact with locals and learn pronuntiation. Tongue breaking, funny, interesting!
Island hopping Croatia (HR):
Zadar (HR): there might be a chance, that ferry will land directly in old town. Search for sea organ and have a drink at Arsenal (hopefully bar still open)
Island Pag (HR): in order to avoid coastal road stretch beween ferry ports Prizna (mainland – island Pag) and Stinica (mainland – island Rab), check at www.rapska-plovidba.hr the possibility to take a small ferry boat from Lun (Pag north) and Rab city.
Istrian peninsula (HR): coming back to mainland from island of Cres, after passing Labin and Barban, head to Prodol and Krnica. Settlement nearby, Cokuni offers best goat cheese experience: www.kumparicka.com. No big detour on the way to Pula.
Poreč (HR) towards Slovenia (SI): pollibility to ride Parenzana trail - old decommisioned railway track. Loose and course gravel, but passable with 45mm tires. In slovenian part fully paved.
If still want to stick original plan: after entering to Slovenia and climbing to Sveti Peter and Nova Vas, possible detour to Marezige (SI) with interesting POI: wine fountain. Thanks to red soil (a lot of iron – terra rossa), wines will be different as further north in Friuli – Collio wine region between Cormons (IT) and Cividale (IT).
When cruising the region of Trieste (IT), you might be tempted to visit Osmizza (use translator to ENG: Osmiza - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) – for 8 days farmstead is allowed to sell own wine and cold cuts in their backyard. Affordable and authentic.
You will pass by several of haute cuisine offering in the region, like Bastianich near Cividale and across border, Hiša Franko, Staro selo, Kobarid (SI).
In front of you some more serious »mountaneering« as hilly and mountaneous Slovenia will be revealed. You will experience beauties of Karst phenomena. Just before Postojna (with its cave), you will cross a field (Planina) which is lake during spring and autumn, in summer – hayfields. I suggest you small shortcut after depart from Postojna towards Ljubljana: visit Rakov Škocjan (champagne gravel road) – remainings of ancient cave with collapsed ceiling – some natural bridges. After Ljubljana (SI), your legs will be already fit for forthcoming climbing. In case of bad weather, possibility to detour Julian Alps (Vršič pass, river Soča valley, Predil pass) is to ride directly from Kranjska Gora (SI) to Tarvisio (IT) using paved cycling path (ex rail).
Have a safe trip!

in order to skip the stretch of coastal road between

We’ll make it a little easier on you then. We had multipiple choices for how to get to the Milan train station and picked the southern one through Vigevano. We could just as easily have approached from the north though so we looked again and overhauled the last two weeks of the tour so they passed closer to the airport.

We’re in the process of rebooking, but we have our plan. We’ll pass right through your town on July 3rd on our way to Legnano, our staging town for the ride to Milan. So that might work out pretty well.

Before that though we’ll be pretty close too if you still have the bikes assembled and want to join us up on the shoreline of Lake Maggiore. We’ll be in Cannobio for three nights and Arona for another three: hiking, biking, and getting around the lake by ferry. We’re very excited about that and grateful you prompted us to look again.

Steve,
That does have some appeal!

Since we began regularly travelling in Europe, and have moved to ebikes, and have stopped camping, and have bikes at home for local rides/tours, and have European friends/storage facilities to stash our bikes between tours....we now travel with only one pannier each. Everything that can stay in Europe, does. It is extremely liberating! Makes shorter transfers slightly less stressful. No need to worry about airlines damaging or losing our stuff. Start each trip from where you ended the last one. Love it!!!

Thanks Mike, it was a fun to go through the whole design and build process. We’re pretty confident that they will be great rides too.

You know you’re a bike tourer when…..

Hi Anne/David,
I think your thoughts on accommodation availability are spot on. We’re certain arriving right near the start of the summer season and hopefully that means less crowds and more businesses starting to open up.

We’ll be in the Cortina / Corvara area from around 20th -28th May and then heading west to Bolzano & Merran. When will you be in the Dolomites? Any chance of an overlap?

They are great! We’ve had IGH (Rohloff’s) and belt drives for over a decade so maybe we’re getting blasé about them. Super reliable, virtually no maintenance and quiet. It was one of the top three ‘must haves’ for the new bikes.

Hi Suzanne, we’re now in Italy and getting ready to battle jet lag for a few days. We’re really excited about the ride, hopefully reality matches our expectations.
We will be in your area for a few weeks (last half of June) after we complete our tour and it would be lovely to get together with you and Janos. Maybe we could take this to a separate email thread ( ltmcleod1 at gmail)

Hi Scott. We’re now in Italy, as are you! Landed about 10 hours ago and we’re just about to crash for the night. Yes, we fly home on the 6th July from MXP. We’ll be staying at the same B&B that we’re at now in Soma Lombardo which is just a few km’s from MXP.
From what we’e seen of your itinerary, meeting up around Asti around 1st July +/- a few days would work for us. Lots of time to sort details before then.