The weather has done a complete about face from yesterday. There is a freshness in the air and the sun is back! Our clothes are dry and packed away in their panniers. We traveled across the broad Po River plane toward the foothills of the Alps and the town of Saluzzo today.
We started the day with a nice breakfast prepared by our host and were slow to leave the B&B Ai Tre Cavalli. Seeing that our bikes had been removed from the garage where they were stored for the night, we knew it was time to leave our comfortable stay. We began by taking the opportunity to have a better look at Cherasco in the sunshine before we left town. It is a really pretty town and has significant history.
Our Italian hosts, Mariangela and her husband and their Australian Shepard with his Spanish name - Pedro.
We left Cherasco from the north side of town and went down a serpentine road to cross the flat valley of Stura of Demonte River before climbing the steep embankment on the far side. This hill started to warm us up! The roads in this area were all busy with the only relief being in the small towns of Marcene and Savigliano where the highway went around them, and we rode through them. The roads were flat and straight, and we could not find any substitute routings for most of the ride to Saluzzo. It was not much fun until we were able to get off SP 662 about 10 kms from our destination.
Looking toward the west you can see fresh snow on the Alps.
Kathleen ClassenWe are grateful for the shoulders in Spain, and the quiet roads, but sometimes we need to ride that six inch paint line too. Reply to this comment 2 years ago
The last ten kilometres into Saluzzo salvaged the ride today. It was on calm, traffic free roads and we had an opportunity to slow down and look around.
Saluzzo is a large town with a wide pedestrian car fee zone. When we arrived, the town maintenance crew were busy cleaning up from the morning market. We found our hotel up the hill above the main street easily. Later that evening we wandered around the town and tried our luck at finding a restaurant without a reservation on a Saturday night. It was still early, about 7 pm, when we were accepted into a restaurant and led to a large empty back room with many tables. Every table had a reserve card with a name on it. We stood by as the staff went from table to table and tried to locate a spot for us. Eventually another lady entered the discussion and she grabbed the card off a table for two and asked us to sit down. By the time we had finished our meals we found that we were in a full and very boisterous family style restaurant. We skipped the desert and had ice cream on our walk home.
