June 1st, first day of summer in Italy and the forecast only showed sun, sun, sun.

Get out the sun protection cream and lip balm!

After an ‘interesting’ breakfast discussion with accomodation owner Sven (he speaks 6 languages, has a low opinion of anyone not speaking at least 3 😳), plus our faux pas mentioning we hate all the smoking in Venice which put us off going there again (to then note the cigarette lighter in his hand), and Tony saying how in Australia you cannot smoke at outdoor cafes. Sven became almost apoplectic (now noting cigarette in his other hand) and we went into our best ‘dig yourself out of a hole mode’ as he went into a passionate rant about the diminishing liberties of smokers…ho hum…

Thank goodness another guest arrived for breakfast and by the time we went back to our room, passing Sven I could smell the cigarette stench, but he was calmer 🤣🤷‍♀️.

We left via the beach side of Lido, where they were just gearing up for the day.

Two ferries were required today. One from Lido to Pellestrina island, then a second to mainland Chioggia, In between we would ride the remaining length of the Venice Lagoon.

Both islands are very narrow with Venice lagoon one side, Adriatic Sea the other.

In many spots a high sea wall exists to protect the islands, the views across the Venice lagoon were lovely. The myriad of small islands, aquatic activities and fishing structures.

On Pellestrina life is very casual. We rode through a spot with two vans selling their wares, the first fruit and vegetables, the second cheeses. Locals all get around in bikes vs cars.

The ferries were not an issue, more of a waiting game. More nice views,

Docking in Chioggia, another canal city. As we could tell from the water, busy as and we made a beeline to safely extract ourselves from the throngs and the markets we seem to route through!

We found a quiet cafe to stop at, as I needed a toilet, so buying a coffee gives us access!

The next chunk of riding was on a busy arterial road, which was to feature a bit today. When I saw the sign Romea I’d groan.

But we did turn off to see some of the extensive Po Delta, one of the most important wetland areas of Europe, largest in Italy, boasting double UNESCO recognition.

64,000 hectares in total, with over 400 animal species and 1,0000 plant species. 300 different bird species, 50 species of fish, 10 amphibians…the extensive list goes on.

We did see an impressive bright green lizard, flamingoes, deer, a large dead mammal looking animal ( no idea what it was), and a plethora of birds.

The riding is very chilled through here. More people riding bikes than cars. There were higher vantage point lookout towers built.

The day was hot, our bike computers had it well over 30 degrees, it was also very windy and we were in a very flat and open area with little to protect us from the super strong headwinds.

The headwinds were cooling, but they do make pedalling forward harder.

We were back in that busy Romea road, and we did detour through a nice little village of Mesola as we needed something more to eat and cold drinks,

We found these two buildings in our way to locating a small supermarket boasting a gazebo with table and chairs. We did enjoy chilling there.

After around 110 km we arrived at our overnight destination, Comacchio, founded 2000 years ago. It is considered a major centre within the Po Delta region, and is also known as Little Venice, due to all of its canals,

We found our accomodation, next to this canal and boat.

We started our post shower wander and both really like this town. It has a great vibe, wonderful historic bridges and buildings without the chaos of other touristy towns,

Some of the views.

Did I say no chaos in this town? We found it! Last week it was the Giro d’Italia, this week the Giro del Lago! We walked into the epicentre of an 8.5 km running race that had very good support.

Now this guy is the kind of official needed at all running and triathlon like events. He is at the triple bridge as we tried to walk through. Think again! He also reminded us very much of one of Raymond Reddington’s friends from the Blacklist.

Back on the course, #125 is in the lead into the second lap. By the third lap he’d cleared out with a comfortable lead. By the fourth lap the shirt was off. He won.

Heading back to our dinner we did try to go into the cathedral but a church event was happening. A quick glimpse though and it looked very nice with high painted domes but it was just not appropriate to enter further.

This is the nicest grilled octopus dish I’ve ever had. Very much enjoyed this,

Health wise how are we tracking? Tony still has a receding thigh lump but otherwise the accident has pretty well healed. He is getting a cold and hacking a bit.

My bruising is coming out. The lump is making sleep difficult as it hurts most in bed. It does not affect me riding as the lump does not touch the saddle when I sit.

So we’re now heading in a southerly direction for a few days before we head west through Tuscany.

The sights have dramatically changed, the weather is warmer. The forecast is good for tomorrow.

Thanks for reading. 😊❣️

It is a shorter blog today as we did not take many photos and I can sum the ride up as … very wet.

We rode 110 km leaving Lake Garda up a hill I have ridden twice before. It had a special name we refer to it as that I cannot possibly commit to writing here. I’ve not done it with a loaded bike so it was harder again. I had planned a different route out but we tried to trim km due to the weather.

This is looking back towards Lake Garda 1 km into the climb. You can see how bleak the lake looks.

Northern Italy has had numerous floods in the past week and that was evident today with rivers raging and obviously higher than usual when you see playground equipment in the waters.

At Rovereto our original plan had been to visit an old cliffside church but due to the rain and the fact it was closed for renovation we moved in a more direct line to our destination.

On the edge of Rovereto there is a marvellous long distance bike path following the Adige River, and we would be on this path for most of the day. In fact I estimate we spent over 100 km of our 110 km ride on sealed bike paths.

This was certainly safer for us, as wet days in roads means you get road water sprayed every time a vehicle passes.

We were wet enough without that additional hazard.

At this point on the path were the cycling figurines and counter showing over 900,000 people had been through since opened. It also showed 11 people for the day.

Later on around Trento there was a similar sign and counter showing 1.8 million users and over 200 users for the day.

Finding shelter was not easy. The path had many signs stating we were on EuroVelo 7, the Sun route 🤣🤣. There were plenty of resting spots in the open, with bike racks, but not under cover.

Here we stopped under shelter at a recycling centre.

We stopped at a supermarket to grab some food, but stopping made us colder and we started shivering. Despite having a $500 highly rated cycling rain jacket water still makes its way through so I threw my best cycling jacket on over my thermals and under my rain jacket to ensure I looked like Michelin man and to generate more upper body warmth.

I also had a wooden skull cap and a rain cap under my helmet.

I had over booties on my feet and wool sox to keep the wet feet warm.

We needed to keep moving and spin the legs more to generate more body heat, which we did.

There was a spot for a few km where the rain eased to a drizzle about 30 km from Bolzano.

We had ridden through many vineyards and stone fruit orchards.

There were high rocky cliffs and hills on either side, many with waterfalls from the rain.

We saw lots of other bike packing cyclists today…maybe 100-120? They were all heading in the opposite direction, which was downhill, we were the ones on the uphills and only had two people pass us all day.

We also saw three of the Giro d’Italia tour buses caught in a bank up of traffic on the autobahn. Hope they got to their cold riders in time. We later learned the Giro route in the area had been changed due to snow at the higher altitudes bringing a freezing point to lower altitudes.

We are staying outside Bolzano up a hill, of course, in a town called San Michele. We turned up from the river path at this point and changed to a different bike path that appears to be an old railway one as we went through three beautiful old tunnels.

Our accomodation is an Air BnB and we are in a room in someone’s house. I did enjoy a nice bath, but she does not have a dryer and given the damp air, our clothes are not drying so we will be putting damp clothes back on.

We borrowed umbrellas and went for a walk and eventually found a nice place to eat in this very German looking town. We forgot to take the camera.

Tony had his ‘usual’ carbonara, and I had a really nice seafood paella.

Tomorrow is one of our big days, with around 2000 metres to climb to get into a more central part of the Dolomites. Rain is forecast but not like today.

There is no breakfast available here either so we will head off early sniffing out food.

We are in the South Tyrol region of Italy which is a German speaking. Signs are predominantly in German now. The border with Austria is not too far away.,

Today’s elevation and map.

Thanks for reading 😊❣️