Days 27 to 29: San Gaudenzio to Torino and beyond

In San Gaudenzio, we stayed in a castle transformed into a lovely hotel called Il Castello di San Gaudenzio.  This was a welcome refuge for those who rode 81 miles in the rain on day 26.  Others (the wider ones; perhaps?) took the train to get here.  From SG we moved on into the Piemonte region, spending a night in Asti before pushing on to Torino.  The slow food movement was born in Piemonte, not surprising given the delicious food we encountered in this region.

Maybe if I'd worn this suit from our castle hotel, I wouldn't have  gotten so drenched on our rainy ride.

Heather loses a pedal, but is determined to cycle 

on, one-legged, to Asti.

Do the poofy balls come with the outfit, here at this Asti clothing store?

Today is a holiday in Asti, Italy's 4th of July.

Two of our tireless guides - Fabio and Cristina

Cary riding on to Torino

Photo taken after a surprisingly long climb into our final destination

These arrows guided us over 2200 K of terrain from one end of Italy to the other.

Delighted to have made it to the top, with a screaming downhill into Torino yet to come.

Carol is pleased too!

Me with Lisa, another one of our wonderful guides.

Here we are in Torino, at last!

Barbara chatting with Torino bike club members, who met us on arrival and later hosted us for lunch.

Sarah, yet another great leader, arriving in style.

Ellen too

Sara's bubbly personality on display

The bike club escorted us through historical Torino before lunch

A delegation from Salt Lake City was also in town, so we received an unusual greeting on arrival at this exposition hall:  "Howdy partner!"

During our farewell dinner, we all get certificates of completion.  Here's Chris receiving hers from Fabio.

Some of our Italian friends leaving lunch, wearing ExperiencePlus! caps

Still life with wine and certificate

Rick and Robin

Robin, Paola and Monicq

Our arrival made the news:  Monica reads us the article from La Stampa, a large Italian paper.

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Monica translates the article for us.  For more photos from La Stampa, go to 

http://multimedia.lastampa.it/multimedia/torino/lstp/51743/

Dan, Dan's sister, Rick and Kathy enduring the rainy bus tour of Torino on the day after the ride.

Fritz truly enjoying it - in shirt sleeves!

Robin and Sara

At the end of our tour, I travelled on to Nice, encountering this plaque (along with a large piece of public sculpture) commemorating the 150th anniversary of Nice's reattachment to France in 1860.  So this happened all around the time in which Garibaldi was unifying Italy.  BTW, did you know that Garibaldi was born in Nice?

Thank you for reading my blog, with its lagging updates and lopsided and out of order photos.  I will return occasionally to update, revise, and correct some entries.  So stop by again soon!

Days 24 to 26: Lucca to San Gaudenzio

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Days 19 to 23: Rome to Lucca

Over these five days, a bike path led us out of Rome and on to the towns of Tuscania, Talamone, the beach town of San Vicenzo, and then on to Lucca, a beautiful, pedestrian-only medieval town surrounded by a 17th Century wall.  On our way from Tuscania to Talamone, more than half of the group (14) got lost by following the first cyclist out of town, rather than watching for the all-powerful arrows.  I was one of these wayward sheep, who paid for it by adding 20 extra kilometers to what was already a 104 K day:

View of Lucca from Tower

Barista at Cafe di Simo, the cafe where Puccini used to hang out

Cycling out of Rome on the bike path along the Tiber river.

Barbara and Ellen having a proper lunch at a lakeside restaurant on the way to Tuscania

A sign in San Vincenzo, celebrating Garibaldi's landing here on his way to Sicily to unify Italy.  (Rick please correct my recollection of history here)

Photo taken on the day I chose to visit 3 hillside towns rather than ride the flats to San Vincenzo.  David did this ride too; we later compared notes on the delicious gelato encountered at the top!

View from one of the hillside towns

These arches support a Romanesque church on the left and homes on the right.

This photo was taken in the town we encountered before climbing the Appennines to Terme (day 25 - this photo is out of sequence.)

Lucca

Lucca