More Alps to Adriatic - running out of superlatives!!

 Days 4-7 on the Alpes to Adriatic have offered a terrific variety of scenery and some of the best cycling infrastructure that we've seen on this whole trip. Temperatures were in the mid 30s from Sunday to yesterday. Today's cooler temperatures with lots of cloud cover was a welcome change.

That was the temperature on Sunday at 7pm in the town
 of Villach where we camped!

I think pictures will speak louder than words here as the scenery has been magnificent. We thought we had reached the nicest possible point on Monday evening when we landed at our hotel outside the tiny village of Valbruna, just slightly off the main route, but the scenery continued to wow us the next day too.

View from our guest house by the village of Valbruna, Italy



Valbruna. Going up the road for dinner at a nearby restaurant.
Notice I do sometimes change my clothes 😃


We crossed a into Italy on Monday afternoon through the old deserted border checkpoint. Immediately after that, the route uses a disused railway bed and now follows what's called the FVG1 cycle route ( but you still get signage for the Cyclovia Alpes Adriatic).

Reaching the Italian border was another big mikestone for us on Monday

Most of these border checkpoint buildings are empty now

There's a section of this trail that is said to be one of Italy's most scenic traffic-free cycleways. You go over many spectacular rail bridges offering views onto the river Fella below and often you're up at roof-top level of the villages below. Going through the many rail tunnels gave a brief reprieve from the scorching temperatures, and we were impressed by the motion- sensor lighting in some of them. Did I mention the mountains? We're in the Julian Alps at this point and the peaks are dramatic.

One of the many rail tunnels on the Italian section. This one was long but had good lighting, and was so lovely and cool


Beautifully paved rail trail, overlooking the Fella river



The town we stayed at last night deserves a special mention. Venzone, Italy is a very historical walled town which was destroyed by an earthquake in May 1976. As they started to rebuild, another series of earthquakes struck again in Sep the same year and further damaged the town. Remarkably, the town was determined to rebuild, and furthermore to completely restore the ancient Duomo and city walls to their original state, which was a huge and painstaking  undertaking.

The walled town of Venzone. You can see the Duomo spire - the church was completely  destroyed by the 1976 earthquakes 

Main piazza  in Venzone

Photo showing the town and duomo after the second 1976 earthquake 

Some stone pieces that lie next to the Duomo today 

We have seen lots of other cyclists on this Alps to Adriatic route. Many are on guided or self-guided tours on eBikes. Some are independent cycle tourists. We recognize one another as we leap-frog along the way. Most are heading to Grado like us, and most started in Salzburg.

Today we saw our first sign for Grado. We're about 55km from Grado tonight, so we should make it there tomorrow.


Comments

  1. JirkaJune 30, 2022 at 12:57 AM

    So if my maps are correct and you follow the itinerary, there is no danger that you will cross the Rubicon. The Rubikon River is about 120 km south of Venice. Well, it's more of a small stream. Recently, one person crossed the Rubicon. It was some Caesar ... yeah, I think so. But he had with him a bunch of buddies who called themselves Legions. Even in Rome, that was a big problem. Listen, even in Rome !!!
    Well, it happened recently, we all remember it. From school, 49 BC.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eva and GeorgeJuly 1, 2022 at 12:32 PM

    You are living your dream guys!
    Enjoy every minute! Almost done!
    We are in Corsica right now, visiting our friend there....doing lots of hiking and discovering the island. It's beautiful here also.

    ReplyDelete

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