Italian wisteria

We may be getting toward the end of our wisteria days, though it's hard to know, since we are cycling through different weather and plant zones each day. Yesterday (24 Aprile) seemed dominated, suddenly, by glorious, full, pink Dogwoods! No photos, though, as we were cruising along nicely with a tailwind, plus it feels strange to stop in front of people's homes...

Here are a few more wisteria, though... From Venice: 

Back on the mainland heading toward Treviso 

And one between Treviso and Carbonara.

There have been so many moments when I want to stop to take a photo of a glorious or curious wisteria; suddenly, after leaving the Mediterranean behind, they are everywhere... And growing in numbers as we head north and east. Most often I let the moment pass with a smile. But sometimes we pause to,take a shot.

Amazingly, across from a huge mall in Savona - 12 Aprile

On the way to Montova -15 Aprile 

On the way to Porto Tolle, 18 Aprile 

Possibly the nicest day of cycleways- 25 Aprile - to Trento, Italy

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.

Venice must wait

At least our posting of pictures... So many to review and load...!

Suddenly it feels like Northern Italy - from Treviso, Veneto, to Lago di Corlo/Arsie, almost Trentino -24 Aprile

We enjoyed a relaxed morning with Vania, our host in Carbonara, just outside Treviso a little ways. Talk with her was influenced by her love of music--her tastes are vast and, in many ways, intersected ours with artists and genres. She is even familiar with Morphine and Mark Sandman's sad connection to Italia. She has a wish to see San Francisco and also visit a friend in Seattle--maybe in the next year or two, so we hope to meet her again then.

The walled city of Treviso is also a college town and a renaissance town with canals and where two rivers meet-- the calm, sleek Sile, which we followed for a long time yesterday, and the Cagnan, more turbulent. Vania told us that the Sile, and perhaps both rivers, come from the mountains, but then go into a sink for many kilometers, then spring up seemingly from nowhere.

Here at this park, Garibaldi, the rivers are still separate.

Those hills... Our destination as we head west and north.

Looking across,from the town of Bassano del Grappa... The valley follows the Brenta through the hills, and we will follow that river on the Ciclopista del Brenta.

We had hopes the riverside part off the route would be smoother... 

We soon opted for the road and enjoyed the mix of village and farm and dam and river views.

We didn't need to cross so many bridges to get to our camp, and doing so added a couple kilometers and some elevation, but they were worth it!

Lago di Corlo. Also, suddenly, we are back in the land of cuckoos... Which we only have heard one other day, as we left the area of Berceto, before Reggio Emilia...