The Italian Adventure - Six Days in the Saddle

We arrived in Alessandria on Saturday afternoon and unfortunately missed the drop-off for the rental car so after dealing with that issue we wandered a bit around town before meeting up with our Girolibero guide around 7PM for the bikes and receipt of the relevant information for the ride. Then it was off to find dinner and unfortunately, it being Saturday night, we could not find a decent place that was not full. Thus we settled on an American style steak and burger joint; sigh. After a disappointing night, we hit the sack at our hotel (Girolibero books hotels, not B&Bs) and watched a little "Strike Back" before sleep took us.

Sunday was day one of the second ride and involved getting to Acqui Terme from Alessandria. A distance of 53.3km and unlike the cycling near Venice, this time we had hills!

We bought some lovely biscuits in Mombaruzzo, where we also discovered the amazing Osteria La Marlera!

We arrived hot and sweaty at La Marlera but the waiters did not bat an eye and set us up with a table outside. Lunch was quite simply one of the best we have ever had.

Lisa started with beef tartar and black truffle (she seems to have found her tartar!) while Christos had the amazing fresh anchioves in chickpea batter lightly fried. The main course was the "Plin" pasta, a local specialty of tiny agnolotti stuffed with veal (for Lisa) and trout ravioli for Christos. Both were out of this world and well washed down with a bottle of Barbera.

After lunch, it was back on the road, with mostly downhill to go. We cycled into Acqui Terme in the late afternoon to a somewhat surreal experience; today was festival day! We arrived during the dog show but that was only part of the day's festivities! The entire main street was festooned with flea market stalls while the town squares were decked out for the dog show and other shows (fashion, talent etc). We popped in to the hotel to drop of the bikes and freshen up before heading into town for a day among the citizenry. A little shopping at the flea market was undertaken before we enjoyed a lovely glass of wine and accompanying treats at an Enoteca.

With the dinner hour now approaching, we headed out of town to Osteria46 where we had an amazing meal (one of our best in Italy) of seafood pasta followed by slow cooked veal belly.

On our way back to the hotel, with the town now empty post festival, we heard live music coming from just off the main road and thus we stumbled into Acqui Terme's  "La Bollente" pavilion complete with a hot spring fountain where water bubbles up at seventy-five degrees! In addition, there was a hubbub of activity at one of the bars nearby which turned out to be the source of the live music.

We sat on the patio enjoying the three person ensemble do Italian favourites as well as phonetically rendered versions of classic English pop tunes (Message In a Bottle, Power of Love etc). While there, we bumped into our Girolibero guide and worked out that Lisa would take the van the next day, skipping the cycle, due to her still struggling with a chest cold. After quite a bit of wine, perhaps one glass too many, we stumbled back to the hotel having enjoyed a truly fine Sunday night.

Monday morning witnessed a mildly hung-over Christos and an unwell Lisa. So Lisa was bundled into the van that moves the baggage from town to town while Christos, after refueling with coffee, cereal and water, hopped on the bike for the longest and toughest day of cycling. Not only was the planned route a tough one with the most vertical climb of any day, Christos added a fourth hill to the three hills planned, increasing both the distance cycled (65.3 km) and the vertical climb (1220m)!

Of course the hilltop views over vineyards were well worth the climbs!

While the ride was lovely, and included a tasty lunch of Plin, by the time Christos got to Alba from Acqui Terme he was exhausted. Lisa was still unwell too and so, after a quick tour of the city, we opted for an easy dinner of pizza instead of fancy dining. Alba is the capital of the "Langhe" region of Piedmont. It is famous for the wine, peaches and truffles. To us it seemed a bit touristy but still quaint.

After a restless sleep, both of us decided to tackle day three of riding as the trip was much shorter (39 km) and with only 345m of climb. The ride from Alba to Asti was wonderful! we stopped for a super yummy cream filled cannelloni at the bakery (the bakers were excited that Canadians had come so far to see Italy), bought some "prodotti tipici" and at the top of the highest hill we had to climb was the Alfieri Winery! where we had a wonderful tasting experience and bought two bottles ("La Tota" and "Alfiera Superior") before heading back out.

We arrived in Asti in the mid afternoon and enjoyed wine and nibbles (we had skipped lunch so the nibbles were essential) and toured the town, including a visit to an ancient 6th (?) century Crypt, before having a fantastic dinner at Osteria Diavolo; veal sausage with tube pasta, tartar with porcini mushrooms, pasta with truffle, pounded and fried lamb chops and all washed down with lovely Barbera D'Asti wine.

As we knew that we did not have to move hotels that night (the options for the next day being a loop ride or a trip to Turin), we stayed up late watching "Strike Back" and drinking Nebbiolo wine!

The next day we decided to do the cycle loop instead of the trip to Turin as the loop was through a nature park nearby, fairly short and we were sure Turin would still be there next time we came to Piedmont!

The day started with a trip to the Wednesday farmer's market in full swing where we provisioned for lunch and then headed off on the bikes.

The ride was fabulous with little traffic and sunny skies. We stopped for a walk into the park at one point and stopped to enjoy the solace of the wilderness for at least a half hour before heading back onto the road.

Soon we found ourselves biking on a path with fields of corn on either side (we started singing "Riders In The Corn" to a Doors tune) and finally we found ourselves seated under a peach tree looking out over the vineyards and enjoying our lunch of bread, barolo sausage, cheese, Roma grapes and a bottle of Fiano Di Avellino.

We made it back to Asti in the mid afternoon, did a little more touring of the town (the local tower) and had a decent but not overwhelming dinner at "Taste Vin".

After two nights in Asti, the tour's next destination was Casale Monferrato, on the Po River. The planned route was around 60km but included quite a bit of hills so Christos planned out a new route that added around 5km of riding but skipped the first hill and reduced the vertical climb to around 400m from 700m.

At around the 50km mark of the ride we stopped for lunch at the local "Bar Municipio" in Terruggia; nothing fancy but a much needed pasta, wine and beer stop after a long ride. The price was right as well!

In Casale Monferrato we discovered the wonderful Krumiri biscuits, perfect with coffee! We bought a couple tins to take home with us; both for the biscuits themselves and the wonderful tins they come in.

Our stay in Casale Monferrato was otherwise fairly boring. We had a decent dinner where the owner ignored us in favour of his local guests and our experience at the hotel was poor (AC and wifi problems) and by this point we were feeling pretty worn out with the riding and battling chest colds.

So the next day we were happy that it was our sixth and final day of riding. We biked 51km back to Alessandria, completing our loop of Piedmont,  then returned the bikes and decided to stroll through town enjoying the chocolate festival that was going on. Quite a few euros were spent on artisanal chocolate that afternoon I can tell you! We also saw a bunch of kids dressed in 50s style doing some flash mob style dance moves on the street and shopped for clothes (bike t-shirt for Christos, "in love" long sleeved shirt for Lisa) as we had a laundry situation by this point!

Fortunately we had also thought ahead and when we had last been in Alessandria almost a week previously, we had made a reservation at Il Vicoletto (one of the places that had turned us away six days prior) and thus had an excellent dinner of pasta with porcini followed by oven cooked rabbit (Italian: coniglio).

With the second cycling tour done and us both feeling a bit fatigues and worn down with chest colds, we were quite ready for the next stage of our trip; four days in one B&B near the village of Sinio ...