Shake Down!

April 10, 2025

OAB to Sesto Calende for lunch

First real rides on the MannMades. All good, sweet rides!

We got Kirsten’s bike built yesterday before the 22 hrs of travel without sleep hit us. It was my bike’s turn today.

The B&B we’re staying at, Agritourismo Sant’Anna, is a wonderful place with a beautiful large patio on a steep bank overlooking the Ticino river as it flows south out of Lake Maggiore. Definitely one of the nicest places we’ve ever had to reconstruct or tear down our bikes. After a short but good sleep and having a first run at reconstruction yesterday with K’s bike, mine went together pretty quickly. The rest of the morning was spent organising our bags for biking and getting our eSIMs registered (Travel Orange Europe - full service sim: phone, text and 70 GB’s of data for 30 days. Highly recommended!) so they can be topped up throughout the rest of the tour.

With all that out of the way we set off north along the bike route beside the Ticino river to Sesto Calende for lunch.

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Not much more to add. Perfect biking weather, good lunch and a redo for dinner. Yes, back to Castigo again to eat the other half of the menu

The view north from the patio, aka bike workshop. You can just make out the Alps through the haze. With about 15 million of Italy’s 60 million people crowded into Piedmont and Lombardy (which the Ticino river below is the boundary between them) hazy days like this are probably the norm. I’m sure on a really clear day the view would be spectacular.

Part of the very lovely Agritourismo Sant’Anna. There’s the B&B, some horse stables, an organic blueberry farm … and the irrepressible (and super helpful) Margaret running it all!

Fantastic wisteria growing everywhere in this region

Cool fish skeletons made of old hand tools and chains. breakfast room at Sant’Anna

Hey, it’s over. Didn’t you get the memo?

And here we go. Super friendly little doggy at the B&B. A happy greeting and send off every time!

along the Ticino at Sesto Calende. Perfect day for a ride.

Cool swan dive! The water is so clear you can see his/her head under the water. The refraction of the water really distorts the neck and head

A more conventional/ classical swan shot

That’s Sant’Anna up on the hill. A little grainy as I’m just using my iPhone for these pics.

About to leave the river valley for today’s one and only climb. Lovely shake down ride.

Balancing the wine trade and heading south and going red. Tonight’s feature, a great Aglianico from Basilicata. Rare to find this on a wine list in Canada.

A real retro dessert … K and I shared this one. A chocolate ball filled with macerated blueberries and blackberries set on a sorbet with crumbled biscotti (I think). Hot melted chocolate was then poured over the ball to melt it and reveal the fruit inside.

The result is a delicious mess on the plate and we lapped it up! Missed getting a farewell shot with two spoons in it … you’ll just have to imagine it. Good night!

SOTD

More than a Feeling by Boston…..

With yesterday’s Magic Carpet ride and then this, you might be thinking that we need to be rescued from that deep (cess) pool of nostalgia. Well that might be right but please indulge us in one more throwback.

At dinner tonight the soundtrack was all late 70’s / early 80’s (like our retro dessert!) Heavy on Chicago and Boston (band names were sooo creative then!) Nostalgia was certainly involved in today’s pick, but where K and I were drawn to wasn’t high school but to a similar evening in 2017 in Frasdorf DE.

And it may sound corny, but today’s modest ride was our first real one of the season and it truly was more than a feeling.

Such a classic. The rhythm guitar player in the blue one piece was somewhat reminicient of several older Italian cyclists we saw today too!

Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 30 km (19 miles)

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Gregory GarceauI have more than a feeling you're going to have a great trip. Have fun on your magic bicycle ride.
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4 days ago

Lyle McLeodThanks! Great to hear from another member of the ‘Dad puns ‘r us club’!
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4 days ago

Lisa BaptieYou guys seem well on your way, glad the blueberry farm was a sweet pick 😉
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3 days ago

Rachael AndersonAnother great song choice!
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1 day ago