It was refreshing to load up our bikes and head out of town,
leaving the tourist crowds behind. We
had a road map with our route highlighted, a bicycle GPS, and Patrick’s
navigational skills. I had estimated the
distances each day based on the walking directions in Google maps. Based on that, this was the longest day of
the trip at 83 so we made sure to get an early start. Not far out of Maestre we made nice progress
on a bike path, then encountered a small car heading right at us. Turns out the roads are so narrow that what I
thought was a bike path was a public road.
Later on we shared these roads with tractors, by shared I mean I tried
to outrun the tractors and Patrick insisted I pull my bike off the road. We found more tractors (about 10) than tourists (2 on their touring bikes)
in the Italian countryside. Patrick
described our progress as exponential speed increase in that we checked out
sights and snacks in the morning and sped up in the cool of the evening – our final
push to Mantova averaged 21 mph. With stops
for snacks and map consultation, and change of double flat caused by running
over thorns we finished in 11 hours and 45 min. It was a really fun day, and our actual
distance came out to 110 miles. Patrick
said that it was his 3rd century ride, the others being 5 years ago
as 2 days of our 3 day ride around Puerto Rico.
Cycling paths were plentiful and we saw older folks exercising
on these, we took the opportunity to go on these paths, although they were dirt
and sometimes not heading directly to our destination. We noticed quickly that many towns had clock
towers and we compared them to the ubiquitous water towers in the Midwest.
I really enjoyed checking out the many shines
to Mary on our route.
I estimated a rate
of 1.5 - 2 Marys an hour, with the exception of the last sparsely populated pull
into Mantova. Our first stop of the day was in Padua, which
is a good size city with some lovely churches and a park with sculptures. We saw a man riding a bicycle wearing a suit
there and workers commuting on matching battery assist bikes. Even though it was a city it was pleasant to
get around on the bike because of the bike paths and lanes. One bike path had its own little stoplights
and extender on the train crossing arm to block the path. The most
pleasant cycling of the day was a park with inactive volcanos, quite scenic and
nice climbing. I was tempted to race a
cyclist we saw up a climb, but it turned out to be a no go with a stomach full
of pizza and expresso.
Sights after the
volcanos included chicken in the road, corn, and a lovely pink church in
otherwise nondescript town.
We rode over the cobbles into the city of Mantova as the
massive clocktower stuck 7. Patrick
popped into a bookstore to buy a map and I check out the many people on bicycles
in town. One teenage girl came by with
another teenager on the back of her bike chatting on a cell phone. I also spotted a woman with two babies on her
bike, one on front and one in back. Here is a man with children we saw the next morning.
Top food of the day: pizza – eaten for breakfast, lunch, and
dinner
