Daphne's Drivel

 Monday Sep 23rd Monday was our second day along the Po and the path became a little more interesting. Leading us to the city of Ferrara, just a little south of the Po, were a series of tree-lined pathways along small canals and rich farmland. Canal pathway  By lunchtime we had reached the city of Ferrara. This city has a blend of Medieval  and Renaissance architecture. It was the seat of the powerful Este family who governed here for three centuries, and today it is a UNESCO site. We enjoyed a pasta lunch in one of its attractive Piazzas. The wonderful thing about many of these cities is that it is a joy to cycle around the historical centres as they're completely pedestrianised. That was the case here. You just have to watch out for the crazy, speedy e-bikers! Cycling into the historic city of Ferrara Statue of Niccolo 111 d'Este, one of the Dukes of the ruling family Taking a break by the Castello Estense di Ferrara, complete with moat He looks like a happy cycle-touri...

 We might not have the Romans with us anymore, but we're still riding and slowly making our way towards the Venice Lagoon. This route we have planned will take us along the Po River and eventually northwards towards the outer islands along the famous Lagoon, a distance of a couple of hundred kilometers or so. Our planned route from Ostiglia towards the Venice Lagoon We left Ostiglia and the terminus of the Via Claudia on Sunday morning and started making our way along the River Po. This is a huge, wide, slow-moving river that at first was very impressive. We saw next to no boat traffic on it - a couple of pleasure boats and one river cruise boat moored along the bank on Sunday. However, after a few miles, the path, dare I say it, became a bit boring. The cycleway was on top of the flood- control levy, and on the river side, we were often separated from the river by a wide swath of tree plantations (looked like tall skinny poplars), presumably to stabilise the soil in the flood plai...

 It was about 5pm on Saturday Sep 21st when we reached the town of Ostiglia, the terminus of the Padana branch of the Via Claudia Augusta, and got our first glimpse of the River Po, the all-important transport link to the Adriatic Sea, as well as to points up river. Ostiglia marks the end point of the VCA for us. Here it joins the River Po. Hostilia was it's Roman name An interpretive sign, similar to others we had seen along the route, marked the end point, plus a replica of the stone mile markers the Romans had placed along the route. That was it.  The interpretive sign at the end of the cycling route Replica Roman mile marker at the end And the town proved to be a very  rundown and unappealing. Earlier we had checked out Booking.com for a place to stay and found nothing available, so we assumed everything was full. On Google Maps I had found a 2-star hotel with a phone number and I phoned ahead and talked to a man who didn't speak english but understood enough to be ab...

 Waking up in Villafranca di Verona this morning wasn't really in the plans - we had expected to ride further yesterday afternoon after leaving Verona. However, this town has turned out to be one of the nicest surprises  on our tour. Our "shortish" ride to Villafranca During an afternoon coffee stop after a short but unpleasant section on a busy road entering the town, we began to look ahead at overnight options in the area. Not a single campground was to be found, which we kind of already knew.  As we checked out the other hotels and agriturismos, we were finding a lot were already full. So then the thought struck us - would it be so bad to end the ride after only 37 km? Of course not, we decided! It would make a nice change to be somewhere by 4pm and actually have some time to chill. So we went ahead and booked a hotel in this town, Villafranca di Verona, which we knew nothing about. Well, the place turned out to be a little gem. Not touristy, not too big or busy but fi...

 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...

 " Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy and offers a magical combination of beauty, culture and history, opportunity for active and leisure activities, and a perfect climate". Not my words, but it does explain why tourists throng here. It also happens to be a mountain biking mecca as well as a popular end point for cyclists coming down from Germany, and a busy centre for wind surfing, kite surfing and sailing. We had a free day on Saturday and opted to join the masses and take our unloaded bikes on a ferry across to the west side of the lake to visit the pretty town of Limone. There's a very popular albeit short "ciclopista" that starts from there which we aimed to visit. Frank and I had been to this town before by car, but in November, a much quieter time. Approaching Limone on the ferry. As the name suggests, there are lemon groves here, as well as lots of olive trees A pretty spectacular suspended cycleway above the lake. So far only 4km have been built, b...