Alba to Asti

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

We rode from Alba to Asti today, approximately 35.2 km and by far the easiest riding day of our trip which by now we were grateful for.  Alba is know for its fine cuisine, candies and good wine. Many of the streets in all of the towns we have visited so far are called Via Cavour, in this case the street has much historic medieval looking architecture.
One of the towns we rode through was called Gavone and has a famous 17th century castle. The town itself dates back to the Middle Ages, the castle was magnificent and so were the views.

We stayed at the Hotel Lis who were very gracious with presenting each rider with a bottle of wine, of course ours was consumed that night.
Buena Notte

Tim & Elaine

Acqui Terma to Alba

August 26, 2012

Ciao, 

Day two of bike ride. Tim has found a friend and an alliance with the Australian. They both quickly learned that navigating uncharted territories in a common language can be of great benefit. I am grateful that all I have to do is pedal and follow. The Swiss are on there own, partly because they do not speak any English, have made some obvious navigation errors and they are not very friendly.

Temperatures in the 90's, hills 90% of the way with 10-20% grade. I have to admit that at one point everyone got off to walk their bikes with the exception of Tim. Go Tim! He even impressed the Australian not only with his hill work but with his navigation skills. Go figure!

Our map has taken us into some crazy places with road signs that are in a language that we can not even pronounce. Today, hills, hills, and more hills, Italian countryside, vineyards, villas, churches, crematoriums, sacrament stations and friendly and helpful Italians.

After our ride, we went to go visit the Frunotto Winery where Tim was able to talk wine with the Wine PR person. We not only toured the winery which was beautiful but she opened 5 bottles of great Italian wine. I learned that the crop of 2012 may not yield the best wine due to the drought and lack of sugar content in the grapes. It will be interesting to see how the vintage will turn out after this year. 

Love to all,

Tim & Elaine

Alessandria to Acqui Terma

August 25, 2012

Buono Sera, Amico's e Famiglia,

Today was our first day of riding and our bike tour (Girolivero) company met us at our Hotel. The young cute Italian man named Guido met us and showed us our bikes. They are a cross bike, bright orange, heavy but get the jobs done. It turns out that we have company, two Swiss that only speak German & French, (husband and wife) and a retired firefighter from Australia. We feel like we are on the show "The Great Race", will the Americans, The Aussie or the Swiss get to the end first? It is very cute but as it turns out no one is in a race but just enjoying the scenery.

We rode through the countryside between Alessandria and Acqui Terme, this covered terrain ranging from flat open farm land to miles of wine country. Northern Italy is going through a terrible drought right now and the crops such as corn have been devastated, similar to what the US is experiencing in the Midwest.

Leaving the town of Monvaruzzo we rode into the valley where we started our major ascent towards Maranzana & Ricaldone. For the first day we did not expect to have such steep grades but were rewarded with magnificent views once we got to the top of the hills. The grades were easily 10-12% for a majority of the back half of the ride with 90 degree temperatures.

The views, the people, the food and yes the wine has all been magnificent.  There are many villages that cover the Italian countryside mostly set at the top of the hill with a very prominent church at the top and center of the town. 

Ciao,

Tim & Elaine
 

Alessandria It

"Walking Through History"
August 24, 2012-Saturday
Today greeted us with some much needed sleep in the morning and then off to see what we could see and experience in the town of Alessandria. Our tour of the City started with the architecture of the Medieval Period and we saw The Church of St. Mary of the Castle and then on to the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century all the way to the Nineteenth Century. This very kind Italian women saw that we were looking at churches and gave us an incredible history lesson as she walked us through the Via's (streets) and showed us two beautiful (bela) churches, The Church of the Blessed Virgin of Monserat and The Church of the St. Alexander and St Charles. The challenge was she did not speak English well and we did not Speak Italiano but with hand gesturing and a translation book we were able to communicate reasonable well. In Italy the shops do not open until 4:00 pm and promptly close at 6:30 PM and only the bars with drinks (vino) and appetizers are open. The restaurants do not open until 8:00 pm and we needed food so tonight we ate at a bar with appetizers and had some great conversation with lots of hand gesturing with some Italian businessmen that were sitting next to us. Everyone has been very kind and accepting of us as we are obviously American Tourists on Holiday. We learned a new term for toasting "Chi Chi".

Buena Notte,

Elaine & Tim 

Planes,Trains and Automobiles, we arrive in Milan It

Buongiorno,
The plane ride was well a long plane ride, it was interesting to see how many positions I could get into while trying to sleep.  I was grateful to have friendly seat mate called Tim. We were in Milan briefly, just long enough to get some much needed sleep and then back on the train. Everyone has been very gracious and our little few words of Italiano has come in very handy at critical times. The food has been ottimo and at breafast they even offered up gluten free options. Bueno!

Today is Saturday and we will be exploring the local sites and seeing museums in Alessandria, Italy. Our bikes arrive tomorrow and then we head towards Acqui Terme, on Sunday. 

Ciao,

Tim & Elaine