Day1 - Somma Lombardo to Monguzzo - Oh The Places You'll Go - 2025

April 11, 2025

Day1 - Somma Lombardo to Monguzzo

Easing Into It

On the first ride of every tour you often feel like a super hero.

Well today, I was Batman, and Wesley Willis ‘Wupped my ass’. For the one or two people out there who’ll recognize this reference, don’t worry, it’s not SOTD..

K was tired at the end of the day but was otherwise unfazed. She’s a trooper. Read on to find out why.

Heart

Comment

Link

Weather wise, it was a perfect day for cycling. They sky was mixed sun and cloud, the temperature started out in the low teens and never got above 23 and there was really no wind.

The cycling infrastructure in Northern Italy is generally first rate, however around here most of the dedicated cycling routes run north south, taking you up to the lakes and mountains.

Our plan however was to head east to Lake Garda to meet up with our old touring friend Andrea. Even Margaret, our B&B host (who’s a cycling machine) remarked that there are no really ‘good’ routes heading east, so we’d need to freelance.

This area is also part of the Milan metropolitan area. It’s really built up everywhere, and gets progressively busier as you head east towards Milan proper. The route I put together in RWGPS had us going east for about 40 km’s and the heading north to Como where we’d join the BI-12 cycle route (one of the many designated long distance cycle routes in Italy). That is also where the hills would start.

We did see though that our route crossed the Val Olona bike trail at the 20 km mark and that would take us north to join up with the BI-12 at Malnate, adding another 20 km’s of that hillier route.

To cut to the chase, that’s what we did. As we expected the first 20 km’s of riding were fine, but we were sharing it with a lot of other folks, most of them not on bikes. When we saw the Olona bike trail, a rail trail conversion heading north along the Olona river it was a no brainer, and it turned out to be a wonderful ride for 17 of the 20 km’s we were on it.

Thanks for the wonderful stay Margaret. See you again in a couple of months!

Heading north towards Varese on the Val Olona bike trail, a very nice rail trail conversion

As we were approaching Malnate, and the end of the rail trail, we saw that there was a significant upgrade project underway on the trail. Really nice wide trail, freshly packed down and ready for paving, it was all looking good.

Oh, there was a trail closed sign, but those don’t usually mean much and we did see a few tire tracks in the still loose dirt.

Not too bad, we managed to keep the bikes loaded and with two of us we got the bikes lifted up the far bank

Ready to ride the last few km’s to hook up with the BI-12 route

Until this a few 100 metres along! Let’s do this again!

As the pics show, we did make it through. The first ditch (where the footings for what will be a nice bridge were actively being poured … the workers were off on a lunch break) wasn’t much of a problem. The second one, about 300 m further along took some more problem solving skills as there were metal barricade fences involved. No problem here as we’re pretty good problem solvers (and scofflaws too).

This did cost us some time but we had a quick lunch in Malnate and then joined onto the BI-12 route. This turned out to be a mix of roads, some reasonably busy, and dedicated bike trails, a good portion of them dirt and rough gravel.

Oh, and there were hills too.

The addition of ~20 km’s of the BI-12 probably added about 500 m of climbing to the day, taking it from a reasonable 700 m total to over 1200 m. Again, that’s not huge, but a lot more than we wanted for day 1 (of the year and tour!).

But hey, the sky was blue, the scenery around Como was great and we were out touring together.

One of the nice quiet sections of the BI-12 on our way to Como

First glimpse of Como below us. Nice ride down followed by the same climb out!

Our final destination is on the other side of the small lake, and hill!

Final few km’s along the east of Lago di Alserio. Started off great but it became pretty rough right after that. Large boulders, some washed out sections, a few short punchy rises … all ok on a suspension Mtb but this was the final straw that whupped my ass

We’re trying out Agriturismos on this tour. They are essentially farm stay B&B’s with a wide range of cost and amenities. Our place tonight, La Cavallina (the small horse) was on the more basic end but provided everything we needed. A hot shower, a cold beer and a good basic dinner.

After that I was out. The blog could come later .. and it has.

Good night from the Agriturismo La Cavallina!

SOTD

Take Five, covered by King Tubby.

Like today’s ride, you think you know it but it turns to be just a little different.

Today's ride: 83 km (52 miles)
Total: 113 km (70 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	9
Comment on this entry	Comment	0