October 3, 2011
Il Treno
Last night's village was a great place to stay. On the ground floor was the restaurant and bar. The bar seemed to be the social centre of the village and when we went down to get something to eat it was full of men, who if you weren't in Italy, you would think were having a terrible argument as they yelled at each other at the top of their voices. It was of course all in high good humour.
We had a decision to make today once we reached Trento. We could continue beside the Adige as far as Ostiglia after which we had no more cycling maps and would have to find our way across country to Venice which shouldn't be too difficult as we had a GPS and regular road maps, but the traffic could well be heavy. It also meant riding across the bridge that links Venice with the mainland - we did this last year and I wasn't keen to repeat the experience.
The other alternative was to stick largely to the mountains - we had maps all the way and didn't have to ride over the Venice Bridge. The problem with this is that the first part was extremely difficult with steep unformed tracks over the mountains and you are advised very strongly not to attempt it but to get a train from Trento to Pergine to avoid it. Our experience with trains makes Ken in particular very stressed but we decided this is what we would do. Ken would have preferred the high mountain tracks but he would have had to do them alone. It was just a 20km ride to Trento and we found the station easily. Everyone at the station was extremely helpful. After our experience in Hungary I wrote the name of our destination down so we were on the right train with the correct tickets. We had a cappacino but the best part of it all was the lovely man on the station platform. He is employed to help people. He doesn't have a word of English but is a past master at seeking out stressed people. He recognised us immediately and he and I became great mates. I love Italian men like this. Not only did he make sure we were on the right train but helped load the bikes, this was actually very easy as we didn't have to take off any of our luggage and when we got to the other end we just wheeled them off. What a spectacular train journey, I have never seen such deep ravines and such inpenetrable looking steep cliffs - I was glad I was not on my bike.
At Pergine we found the route and before long we were at Lago di Caldonazzo. People were swimming and it really is quite hot. Such a contrast from being at Naunders just a few days ago. We didn't go far and stopped at the small town of Caldonazzo just past the lake. We have only about 280km to go to Venice so will take things fairly slowly so we don't have too much time in Venice at the end waiting for our plane. That all sounds as if the great adventure is getting near the end and I suppose it is.
Today's ride: 37 km (23 miles)
Total: 3,613 km (2,244 miles)
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