With our camp at the lake last night 10k off-route we backtracked to our path, which wasn't so bad considering most of the backtrack was downhill. It was Liberation Day in Italy, or maybe just a beautiful Saturday, and many people were out walking, hiking and riding the trails and cycle paths--quite a bit different from yesterday's solo feel.
I had another flat from a decent sized thorn punching through my more worn back tire. Thankfully we were on a slight uphill with a lovely little turnout with a stone "workbench" for the patch work a la Paul. (Someday I'll have to fix a flat by myself...)
The deciduous type of trees and vegetation seemed to hug the craggy slopes.
We passed throug Bassano yesterday--the city with the big bridge over the Brenta-- so this arrow isn't true to our course. But the Ciclopista del Brenta was!
The paths today were smooth and removed from industry and towns, lined with trees, the Brenta...
....merged with the Via.
Definitely castle country now.
Just a cool village our way passed through.
And orchard country! The Brenta valley (and, tomorrow's Adige valley) was covered in orchards in various states of bloom. Most seemed to be apple.
It's been strange. Grazing cattle have been scarce. Most Italian cows are barned up for efficiency of milk production, so these brought a smile to my heart.
Finally, an opportune moment for Paul to get his photo with a Piaggio Ape worker truck, very prominent in Italy, but usually occupied.
The Italian Alps in the distance! As we followed the Via Claudia Augusta up and over and around to get to Trento we got to see high and low.
Our stay in Trento was with Dario and Antonella, who were having a big gathering for the inauguration of their housing project with 3 other families. Pretty cool situation! They were gracious enough to let us crash their party and stay the night. We enjoyed watching the children play and conversation with a few of the adults, but no photos...feeling a bit sheepish. Dario and Antonella have cycled all over the world as well as hosted cyclists from all over. Very cool couple.
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