Trento Day 3

A waterfall that just showed up after the recent rain.

End of trip chore day now means getting a covid test. The appointment that Ken made turned out to be exactly what we needed (a rapid antigen test with printed results in 30 minutes). The mobile testing site is part way up one of the foothills in south Trento. About a 30 minute bike ride on path, streets and sidewalks. The route takes you by the Volvo dealer, a fruit packing plant, and many warehouses. Directions caution of a steep hill. We find the hill and it is still not as bad as those at home.

Next to a pharmacy, a small plywood “house” is the actual testing site. There is a steady stream of customers, mostly under age 40, generally fit. Possibly the older, less healthy have already had it? The process is very efficient once we work out the right place. The signs promise a “naso-pharyngeal” test, and sure enough it is conducted with the long swab passed through the nasal cavity back somewhere towards the tonsils. Ken’s ample schnozzle is unfazed by the invasion, but Zelda comes away blinking as though she has just snorted wasabi. For this pleasure we pay a very reasonable 22 euros a piece; the rest of of the people, enrolled in Italy’s health system, pay nothing. Then we wait 30 minutes until they print out our results — negative for both! (No pictures on any of this because of privacy all around.) The adjacent grocery provides a solid round of rolls, cheese, and mineral water. Chocolate Leibniz’s for celebratory dessert.

Back we go down through the residential, business, autostrada-adjacent warehouses until we arrive at the E7 and River Adige again. The hill climbs were a good reminder of nearly forgotten muscles. The Bromptons do fine on hills, it is us that needs work. Now on the river we are on the flat and push along between the parallel tracks: river, autostrada, farm road, dike, canal, fruit trees. The order changes occasionally yet at any time you can find all of them in the picture.

We make it down to the 46th parallel. Who knew? In Oregon we crossed the 45th routinely near Salem. And the 46th is the border of Oregon and Washington, North and South Dakota, and the Arabat Spit. Now we know it is also just south of Trento.

We spend some time riding around town, taking a last pass through the piazza and duomo. Ken is trying to teach autocorrect to stop replacing duomo with Cuomo. It is a losing battle.

Carved knot on the back of the duomo. Takes a special mind to do this work.

Then we leave the bikes in the room and head out for a last dash to the Buonconsiglio Castle. No time to get inside but the gardens are fantastic. Adding this to our next visit to Trento.

Hedges, lavender, roses, grapes — all the plants are old, thick-stemmed yet vigorous.

Zelda makes plans to bring this home as checked luggage.

(Distance — someone forgot to turn on Garmin to get a real map. This is the part that we remembered to record. You can imagine that we got down to the clinic somehow on bike.)

Today's ride: 39 km (24 miles)
Total: 374 km (232 miles)

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