It is a beautifully sunny Saturday. And even early in the morning, the temperature is so high that I can ride my bike in the semi-nude. Even when I was a child, I enjoyed feeling the summer sun, along with the airstream, on my bare back.
The way from Ostiglia to Verona is totally unspectacular. We ride north through Pescantina, buying cherries somewhere on the way from a street vendor. At these high temperatures, we have a high daily fluid requirement.
At the Koga, my front derailleur is only partly functional. Since the still rather hill-free course can be done with little use of the gearshift, this is not a problem.
In Verona, our first stop is at the railway station – I want to try for a reservation to Munich in one of the fast direct trains with limited bike capacity. Of course, it turns out you cannot buy tickets to Munich in Verona; neither can you make a reservation.
A waste of time and effort (but at least all it cost was time). So we go on to the city centre to look at the Arena. And then we ride through the old Verona. In front of the Arena, we have lunch: two aperitifs and a Pizza Arena. In this highly touristy place, too, the Italian food tastes excellent.
Then we continue to the river Etsch via Pescantino. We want to go on the Etsch hiking trail. It is a little strenuous, going alongside the river (almost) all the time. But it is very beautiful.
We dawdled all day long, so we are glad to find the Hotel Monte Baldi in Borghetto around 7 p.m. It is situated in the narrow valley of the river Etsch, directly next to the highway and railway.
The hotel was going to open tomorrow, but the owner has a room for us and even shares his Minestrone with us. He also prepares a plate of bacon we can eat. During this night, we are and remain his only guests.
The kilometres count for today is 94, which makes for a total of more than 500 kilometres. For tomorrow, the plans are simple: Trento. That is less than 60 kilometres. Maybe we will be lucky and a direct train to Munich will give us (and in particular our bikes, which is the bottleneck with the railway) passage.
Otherwise, we take the slow FS train to the Brenner, then make the descent to Innsbruck by bike – and then take the slow train to Munich via Mittenwald.
After all, the Mittenwald route is particularly attractive. 🙂
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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