Explored Mantova on foot in the morning. Lovely place with well dressed women and men heading to work on their bicycles and a smell of bakery in the air. I bought two cookies size versions of this local specialty for the trip as well as olive bread and croissants.
The city is dominated by an extensive palace complex (Ducal Palace) http://www.ducalemantova.org/?lang=en
and we enjoyed a visit to the 40 rooms that are open to the public. My favorite sight there was a room painted
with the constellations. I loved the intricately painted wooden
ceilings in some of the rooms too. We
also popped into this church, decorated entirely with frescoes.
Shortly after departing the city, we were cycling by
cornfields and, for a little while, ladies cycling in nice dresses shared the
roads with tractors. To keep our energy
up, Patrick and I eat carried a bag of gummi candies. I decided to eat one every time I saw a shine
to Mary. Quite a few were spotted, but a
lower rate than the previous day due to the fact that we spent most of the day
cycling on a levee and passed by the towns.
We did cross a pontoon bridge which was fun.
And rode by a tree farm.
Midday we were cycling on a dirt road by a canal when it
sounded like a gunshot went off. My rear
tire had blown out and the wheel had gone out of true. Fortunately, Patrick was able to get the
wheel in decent enough shape to continue.
We had gone through 3 tubes in a day and a half of riding and we only
brought four. We found a bike shop in
the next city thanks to Patrick’s bravery in using the guidebook Italian to ask
for directions and my good eye – trying to follow the directions, we passed by the back of the shop which was
completely unmarked. We purchased a
patch kit and 4 more tubes – which went unused for the remainder of the
trip.
We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the grounds of a castle in a
small town. We saw some cyclists out for evening training rides on the bike path into Cremona. This is where we saw the first athletic female cyclist of the trip - she was wearing a bikini top for her workout. We were happy to see many bicycles in the plazas.
Two hour delicious dinner in
Cremona, within view of this cathedral – my favorite sight of the trip.
Top food of the day: rich, meaty raviolis
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