In Saluzzo we stayed at the Antiche Mura. It was a nice place to stay and our host was marvelous. He carried our bags to the elevator and met us on the third floor to take them to our room. And, he came to our door to take them to the lobby upon check out. Maybe because we were so close to check out time of 11:00! We have not been very quick lately with breakfasts closer to 09:00 and us not ready to leave until almost two later. Hard to resist that second double espresso and cake! But our rides have been relatively short for no particular reason except the towns in which we have chosen to stay have been close together in the Piemonte. The pace has been suiting us fine and we think we'll stick with it for a while still.
After a very nice breakfast at the hotel we rolled on our bikes down to the main street in Saluzzo and noticed men wearing alpine hats, some with musical instruments, milling about. We think we missed the event but not entirely sure what it may have been. We carried on looking for a place to pick up some lunch without much success when a man rushed over to us and in very good English shouted out ¨ Ï have a Bike Friday too¨. Of course, we stopped dead in our tracks and began a long discussion about the bikes and his tours in Australia and Chile. He also was wearing the alpine hat with feather and explained that once a year the ¨old guys¨ who were in the army that patrol the mountains get together to celebrate. We also had a good discussion about crossing the alps. His name is Giovanni Calcagno and our chance meeting was a wonderful experience for all of us.
Happy Bike Friday owners! Giovanni joked that there may be only two BFs in all of Italy.
We took great care planning the route from Saluzzo to Cuneo. We were trying to recognize and avoid what appear to be busy roads. I know it seems logical and simple enough, but we have had some issues with busy roads here. Now that we are closer to some hillier areas we thought that these would be good opportunities to find the roads less travelled. We also picked the less direct roads as well as anything designated for bikes. Our route planning was a success and the traffic conditions were a big improvement over yesterday! Even the longer straight divided highway had very few cars. But it was Sunday as well.
A completely dedicated bike path leaving Saluzzo. And we are now seeing a number of roadies around which is a sign of a good riding area.
First church of the day in Manta. Every town has these wonderful buildings. Sometimes two of them.They seem to be becoming common place, but I still feel the need to stop every time and take their picture.
Second church of the day in Busca. Actually, there are two in this town that we passed through. On Sunday, everything was closed except for a small cafe. It was eerily quiet as we rode through.
Although Cuneo is fairly large with a population of over 50K, we located a very quiet ride into the city. We made our way to the centre to find that Cuneo has a long, wide, main street that is car free. It is a very well preserved and cared for city. We both loved it immediately and were pleased that we will be staying here for a couple of days.
On a quiet path moving toward Cuneo, this massive bridge came into view and we passed right underneath it. It is actually a double span, one for each direction.
And then this beauty was just a bit further along. Cars on top and trains on the level below between the columns! We crossed the river on a small pedestrian bridge and climbed the hill on the far side underneath it too!
A large square in Cuneo with only the ring area available for parking. So much nicer than what we have seen in some other towns and cities that we have passed through.
We had dinner just around the corner from our hotel at la Locanda del Bistrot, that also manages the place where we are staying. It was another boisterous affair, and we will be looking for something a bit quieter next time! We wandered back out to the main street, enjoying the warm evening and then returned to our room and called it a night.
Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles) Total: 779 km (484 miles)
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Scott AndersonSo glad you had a much better day - sunny and quieter roads. I almost said something about your ride to Saluzzo, because there’s a very nice, quiet route north of the one you took. In most of the area there are almost empty roads if you add a few miles and ferret them out.
