Back in the saddle again

 We're back! And we're back on the bikes again! Four days not cycling was a good break and we took buses and trains to head to Florence to meet up with David and Rose, my brother and sister-in-law. They were on their own adventure - a self-guided bike tour in Tuscany. 

On the way south we spend a night in Verona and saw Romeo and Juliet's balcony.

Romeo and Juliet's balcony in Verona

The Roman amphitheatre in Verona



Piazza Erbe, Verona in evening light

Our high-speed train to Florence. We reached 193km/hr at one point

Having a Kilkenny at the Irish pub in front of the beautiful Duomo
In Florence. Funny thing is we did the exact same thing
 when we were here nine years ago

The famous Ponte Vecchio, Florence

Statue of David by Michelangelo in Piazza delle Signoroa
This one is a replica of the original

While we were off the bikes, we had everything stored at our hotel at Lake Garda. So after Florence, we returned there and spent the night. We had pre-aranged a special taxi shuttle to help get us out of that steep valley and back on our original Via Claudia route. We did not fancy starting our day with that long steep climb, and it was well worth the €55 to take us and all our gear over the pass.

Getting ready to load up the gear at our hotel in Torbole this morning

Our bike shuttle taxi. They're used to doing this
at Lake Garda as it's such a biking mecca

The route that followed then was really pleasant, still in a narrow valley along the Adige River and also the Adige Sole canal, with steep mountains flanking the cycleways on both sides. We made it close to Verona and because of the lack of campgrounds in the area, made the call to book an apartment as 6pm was approaching. A great day of bright skies and very pleasant riding temperatures.





We had lunch at this busy bicycle rest area today

Signage along the Adige canal today


Vineyards along today's route. Many of these have already been harvested

A Via Claudia interpretive sign on today's route. Nice to see an English translation on this one. In Germany and Austria, we did not have that

A Via Claudia map showing the two branches of the Roman road. We're currently on the one that goes directly south from Trento towards the River Po. The asterisk marks where we reached tonight

Tomorrow we'll be heading on towards Ostiglia. It will be interesting to see how the topography changes as we have pretty much left the mountains now and are in the transition area heading to the flat agricultural plains surrounding the Po river valley.

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