I’ve changed the line of a famous song there, but the Dolomites are heaven for many…skiers, bushwalkers, rock climbers, cyclists and sight seeing tourists, as well as being the backyard home for many lucky Italians.

I fell in love with the Dolomites last year visiting as part of a bike packing bike ride I did with my cycling friend Geoff, returning a few days later with Italy Bike Tours and the Giro d’Italia trip climbing part of Monte Zoncolon and other roads around.

It was on the ‘must do’ list for this years trip so Tony could experience the majestic beauty.

First things first, we needed to complete our crossing of the Venetian Plains. I am not a big fan of the Plains having crossed en route to Venice (from London) on a 2016 bike trip.

Our day started with a beautiful breakfast prepared by our host Wanda. She is a very kind and beautiful soul, and we really connected with her. The first shot is at breakfast, where we are holding her dog Pereuka, who recently delivered 6 very cute little pups.

The second photo is with Wanda as we prepared to leave, only to discover Tony had a flat rear tyre courtesy of a tiny slither or broken glass. At least he could change it in a dry garage.

It was raining and only 5 degrees Celsius. It was a tough first 100 km today as our route was predominantly urbanised, traversing the large city of Padova which took us over one hour to shuffle through, continually hopping on and off the bike, walking over street crossings, scootering, manouvering around chicanes.

The number of trucks experienced today was extraordinary for arterial roads, given the highways running parallel.

In between the there were patches of interesting buildings and features.

In the distance, you can see the Dolomites. That excited us, as we were a bit wet. We noticed a bike shop promoting Specialized, our bike brand, so swung in. Ooh some nice new bikes, and we parted with 55 euro. Tony was suffering with cold hands so we purchased thicker riding gloves for him.

For a short distance we rode alongside this canal. The temperature soared…..from 5 degrees up to 9! I needed to take one of my 4 layers of tops off! Which layer shall I shed?

There were more interesting old buildings in the next town.

Check out the base of these olive trees for sale.

More interesting towns with mountain views closing in.

The last 50 km were great. We started climbing, the lands were green, the towns smaller, and tiny villages. This is what we enjoy. The sites were great. Here are a series of progressive photos that I had trouble deciding what to include.

Riding on village lane we followed this guy for a while. He climbed up the 15 percent pinch quicker than us (a bit further along the road).

You can never get enough of the Dolomites. More views just before our arrival into our overnight town of Belluno.

This is our route and climbing graph.

Today was a challenging day predominantly due to the bad weather for the first 50 km or so, and the amount of urbanised ‘riding’ across the Venetian Plains.

We are glad to be in a more rural setting now, knocking on the Dolomites front door.

Tomorrow we climb up to 1400 m.a.s.l to Cortina, our base for three nights. It will be colder and more prone to inclement weather but my fingers are crossed! The forecasts here change regularly. What will be, will be. We are in an area of no Plan B options so whoever is holding the Sharron bad weather voodoo doll, be kind!

Thanks for reading,

Ooroo