August 19, 2024
To Rivera, Switzerland
from Mendrisio
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It's fitting, I think, to end our ride over the Alps on the ancient Roman road the Via Claudia Augusta by spending an evening in the Arena di Verona (the nearly 2000 year old Roman amphitheatre), immersed in the spectacle that is Aida. (It's fair to say that one of us enjoyed it more than the other . . but I managed to ignore his asides.)
However we didn't get back to the apartment until after 1am and it took no time at all for the alarm to get us up at 6am for our 7.40 train.
Today is a repositioning. We don't have the time or inclination to pedal all the way from Verona over another alpine pass back to Zurich so we catch that 7.40 train from Verona to Milan Central, and an hour later board another regional train to Mendrisio, just north of the border town of Chiasso. The Milan train is nearly empty so I can observe the three assistant conductors work our carriage. Not surprisingly, one or two young men leave the train before their intended destination.
The train from Milan is overfull. We find a bike carriage as soon as boarding is allowed and, by the time the bikes are de-panniered and secured to their allotted spaces, it's standing room only for most of the journey. But who cares? We're travelling first west then north, swallowing up some unwanted uphill kilometres in no time at all. There's a glimpse of Lake Como, surrounded by acres of real estate, then we are over the border and pulling into Mendrisio, a quiet Swiss town, where we start our ride.
First though, we engage the help of two attendants at the station's ticket office to organise a fairly complicated ticketing exercise for two days' time. Then, just metres away, we find a post office that's actually open (looking at you, Italy) to buy a stamp for the precious postcard from Grandma and Poppa.
It's now 1pm and getting hotter. Time to start riding. It's not long before we are clear of the town and riding along the shore of Lake Lugano.
Just before Agno, our route turns inland alongside the Vedeggio River. The terrain varies between tarseal and gravel path shaded by trees on the riverbank. It then takes a turn for the worse when the gravel becomes pitted and pot-holed, before returning to tarseal. We're making steady if slow progress though and the grade is shallow enough not to feel overwhelming. The heat is certainly getting to me, along with last night's lack of sleep, so it's a great relief when we arrive in Rivera mid-afternoon and collapse in our retro room at the albergo.
Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 1,253 km (778 miles)
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