Monday Sep 29: Cividale del Friuli to Motta di Livenza

September 29, 2003

After having Mama's breakfast, I looked out to a drizzly morning. When I packed up the bike, it was still drizzling, and when I got on the road, it was still drizzling. Gore-Tex was the order of the day. But I was still soaked.

Though it was raining, it was still quite nice, and I tended to choose quieter roads to avoid the traffic as much as I could. However, the traffic through Udine was as thick as a lard-drinker's blood. It soon eased off and was rather quiet.

I was officially out of the mountains now, and what a change. I had been quite used to the endless climbing, and now I could pedal along at about 25 km/h. In the rain.

I was not sure where to stop, but when I arrived near Motta, I just turned off the highway and looked around. But there was nothing to be found. Even the Carabinieri said there was no B&B in town, but said the hotel was nearby. Fifty-seven Euros later, I was settled into a beautiful little room with another one of those glass-faced boxes, a fridge, a nice tub with hot water, and just around the corner from the town square. Plus, the rain had stopped and the sun was out.

All around this region are innumerable wineries. Each truck that drives by is either loaded right up with grapes, or has skids of new wine bottles, and the smells are of the various wines. Kind of like the Niagara region but on a much bigger scale. And the fields of grapevines go forever. Vineyards everywhere you look. And the wee mountains off to the distance in the north.

It was nice to have the hotel room to get all of the road crud off of my stuff after the full day of rain. There was not much on TV which did not really matter, though one of the top stories was the storm on our east coast - scary. And speaking of issues, another story was the electricity blackout here. Well, I was in Slovenia and then on the bike, so I did not even know until I heard the news.

In the late hours of the evening I was scanning through the shortwave bands of the radio I finally got, and heard Radio Canada International, but fell asleep before I even heard what they were talking about. But, I think it was Barbara Budd.

Tell me you have not seen pictures of this before.

And to think that there's a reckless tractor-attacker somewhere else in the world today

Today's ride: 82 km (51 miles)
Total: 1,783 km (1,107 miles)

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