Turns out it was a good choice to abandon our plans to ride the high passes in the Dolomites. The picture below (which we did not take) shows Samuel Sanchez finishing the Giro d'Italia stage 20 atop the Tre Cime climb, on May 23rd. We didn't plan to watch this stage, but wanted to ride this climb and several other nearby passes. Instead we continued south on the fine network of cycle routes in the South Tirol region of northern Italy. These cycle routes are mostly on dedicated cycle paths, almost always paved, and often along old railway corridors. The section down into Bolzano had lots of old tunnels and was a 20km downhill run!
We ended up in Mezzocorona, a small town that felt like a bedroom community for nearby Trento and Rovereto, but beautiful as it is situated at the base of the Dolomiti di Brenta mountains and is towered over by 4-500 meter high limestone cliffs. We took some nice photos, but have misplaced our card reader that allows us to transfer photos from our digital camera to the iPad that we edit the blog with, so from here on out we will only be able to post photos taken with the iPad (or ones " borrowed" from online sources like the Sam Sanchez shot). Although taking pictures with iPad is easy it makes us feel quite dorky.
We decided to try to wait out weather one more time and took a day trip on the train to watch the Giro d'Italia time trial from Mori to Polsa. Time trials don't make for riveting spectating, but we enjoyed checking it out all the same. Again our hopes of improving weather didn't happen, and so instead of making a circuit through the Dolomiti di Brenta we continued south to Lake Garda. The rain lifted for us and we enjoyed several days of camping (a night on the north end of the lake at Torbole and then a few nights near Sirmione at the south end). Lake Garda is beautiful, especially so with the newly snow capped peaks towering above. Lake Garda is also a very popular place for tourists and locals from all over northern Italy to visit, so it is crowded!
We had one more surprise run-in with the Giro d'Italia as we approached Sirmione. Turns out the final stage rolled right past where we were going to stay and we found ourselves able to enjoy a rode side picnic while the peloton "groupo compacto" (means all the racers were riding together in a cohesive group) flew by.
From Lake Garda we headed west to Brescia and then onto Lago di Iseo.
Cobblestone streets and sidewalks are cool and reflect a craftsmanship you rarely see in the states. They are slippery when wet though - no wipeouts yet, but a few exciting moments for sure.
The look on Samual Sanchez's face makes us happy we stayed in the valleys. Sure we got wet, and cold a few times too, but I don't think we suffered like the Giro riders did in the Dolomites (photo from Cyclingnews.com).
Lago di Garda with freshly snow capped peak in the distance.
This impressive castle in Sirmione on he south shore of Lake Garda was amazingly well preserved and neat to see. Sort of makes the George R.R. Martin novel I am reading come alive.
We are careful to not eat pizza too often, but have had some great pizza!
Rain means some down time and down days, and down time and days are best with beer. The south Tirol region actually had some good beer. Mostly we found light pilsners to be the norm in Italy.
Lago di Iseo. We rode a short 35km day from Brescia to Iseo dodging downpours at cafe's
(coffee at the first stop, beer at the next). The light on the water in between showers was amazing!
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