Sunday, June 04, 2023

Venice to Pisa, Lake Garda May 2023

May 4-7 Venice Lido- Our fifteenth cycling trip to Europe and our fourth trip with Experience Plus took us to Venice, Italy.  The trip actually started on the "Lido" a 10 mile strip of land next to the main island of Venice.  It was quiet, full of greenery and a great starting place.

Venice from 5,000 ft

Waiting for the boat to the Lido

First night shot on one of the Lido's canals

May 8, Lido to Chioggia- Our first official day of riding started with rain.  As a result the guides decided it was best to take the ferry boat all the way from Lido to Chioggia. Once in Chioggia we had a marvelous lunch of fresh branzino, then off to ride to our hotel, an Agritouriso in San Martino di Venezze.


The happy couple on the boat

Our bikes

The famous clock tower in Chioggia

More clock tower art

Fresh branzino, polenta, and roasted veggies lunch

Our agritourismo

Excellent "natural" wines made at the hotel

May 9, San Martino to Ferrara- Lots of "commercial farmland" today.  A bit boring riding the levees along the Po river. But, Ferrara proved to be an interesting city steeped in history.  Ferrara's founders were incredibly visionary creating a city that was able to enlarge well beyond its origins.

River riding




WWII bomb was found 

Military trucks to diffuse the bomb 

Famous castle in Ferrara

View from our restaurant


Very popular pesce crudo. Delicious

More fish

Tempura, who would of thunk!

May 10, Ferrara to Ravenna- It poured rain all day so they decided to shuttle us to Ravenna via a crazy agriturismo for lunch.  Ravenna is famous for it mosaics.  Unfortunately they were high up in the churches and hard to appreciate.

Nice lunch where the 94 yr old grandma made some delicious raviolis

Crazy artwork made by the owner

More of his handiwork

Ravenna mosaics

Ravenna mosaics

The best closeup I could get...

May 11, Ravenna to Faenza- Finally able to ride today, but windy and rainy!! Faenza the home of our tour compay, Experience Plus, European headquarters.  They prepared a beautiful and tasty lunch.  We got the scoop on a local bar that reminded us of something in downtown Los Angeles.  Full of hipsters!


Our lunch spread at EP headquarters

So fun to connect with Sylvia who is an accountant 
there and on our trip in Brittany last year

Part of their fleet of 400 bikes!

Faenza is famous for its Mallorcan ceramics 
Our cool, hipster bar recommended by the EP guides.  
The middle shelf is all gins!  Some good ones!!

                                      

Found this place right down the street from our hotel!


May 12, Faenza to Ronta, over the Apennines- Our first real great day of riding.  We rode 40 miles and climbed 4,000 vertical feet.  Stunning scenery.  This is why we come on these trips.  We escaped the rain until the last few turns on the descent before our hotel.  The others in the group were not so lucky...

Finally some rolling terrain

Many sections of this road had these
 stop lights for one-way travel

Our rain jackets stuffed behind the seat, ready for action

A simple, but delicious panino for lunch

Cool local fountain for water

Top of the "cime" taken by our tour guide
 that we rode up the mountain with 

Hotel in Ronta post the downpour

May 13, Ronta to Florence- A nice descent, then a short climb to Fiesole, small hill town above Florence.  Easy descent into Florence.  We made it.  Another famous city checked off of the bucket list.  

Fiesole outlook

Looking down to Florence

Nice little lunch in Fiesole.  Many cyclists climbing out of
this town up the mountain that we descended

View of the Arno river out of our
hotel room in Florence


May 14, Florence, rest day- The rain continued today as we did our best to enjoy the 3 hour walking tour.  A lot of interesting things to see.  Our guide was full of great historical insights. 

Dinner was on our own and we hit the jackpot.  The day before with went to a hotel bar while doing our laundry and asked the bartender where she liked to eat.  She recommended Locale Firenze.  Wow!  It was rated the #3 bar in Italy and #39 in the world.  





Famous Florentine Bistecca. This steak is cut 4" thick

Locale Firenze. Just one side of this incredible bar
.
Smoked flower soup



Dessert taco

Fantastic dessert presentation


May 15, Florence to Vinci- The weather cooperated and we had another nice day of riding and climbing to Vinci, the birthplace of  Leonardo DaVinci.

Monument of DaVinci's house.  No flat road to this place!

Museum with objects built form his sketches


A lot of his work was designing equipment to build things


View from the museum looking out to the Tuscan countryside

 
May 16, Vinci to Lucca- Another beautiful ride into Lucca. This town was built with a wall around it that enable people and horses.  We actually rode almost the entire wall, almost 3 miles.

The "rideable" wall

Vinarkia, fabulous bar

Carpaccio, fennel, and oranges

Chicken burrito..what!!!

Lovely Tuscan gin martini


May 17, Pisa- The weather was dicey so we decided to pack up the bike and take the train to Pisa.  Good idea!  Pisa was a zoo.  I'm glad we took the train.

All packed up...

The same Arno river in Florence, now downriver in Pisa


The must have shot!


Basilica...

May 18, Pisa airport to Parma- We picked up our very nice Audi A4 wagon (big enough to accommodate our bike cases and luggage) at the Pisa airport and headed to Parma.  The weather started off nice then reverted to our old friend Mr. Rain! Parma proved to be a very nice, walkable town with plenty of bars and restaurants.


Two beauties

Loved this AutoRoute stop, AutoGrill, full of everything

AutoGrill 3 ft. salamis.  Too big for our suitcase!

Arrival lunch at our hotel. 
When in Parma, have the ham!

Main square in Parma

Our favorite bar on the trip, Choice

Two owners had a second business--Ice. 
Note the manual ice saws on the wall.

Every cocktail with ice had their logo
branded in the ice.  Nice touch!


The bar only had seating for 15...



May 19, Parma, Modena- One of our objectives on this trip was to go to a Parmesan Reggiano factory and learn how the cheese is made.  Interesting and incredibly laborious.  No wonder it's so expensive.  After the tour we decided to drive to the Ferrari museum in Modena. It was worth the drive.  


Nice map of all the areas the parmesan comes from 

The vats where it all starts.  Nothing is done here until the local milk,
which makes this cheese special, comes in


Cheese cloth resting station

Extended resting area

Pre-aging

Final aging room.  Actually there were two with over
5,000 wheels weighing about 75 lbs. each

The official Reggiano stamp

Our little tasting.  24 month was out favorite

Sign says it all.  Enzo's house



Stunningly beautiful cars from the mid '50s

1947 race car


The engine room

All the engines made since 1948

I couldn't forget my favorite. The new SUV, Purosangue.  Only $400K

May 19, back in Parma for dinner- We ventured back to the Choice Bar for more interesting spirits.  This bar does not serve wine, only spirits.  We asked the owner for a dinner recommendation and he called over to this friend's place, Don Antonio, a Sicilian fisherman, and got us a table.  What a treat!

Cheers

Two of our favorite guys on the trip- Choice bar owners

Don Antonio, nestled down a quiet street

We were greeted by their fish aging locker
                                                  
Excellent Sicilian white from Mt. Etna

Beautiful starter

Fun shrimp crudo

Interesting soup

Lovely fish raviloi

More fish and greens

Crazy cool palate cleanser

Beautiful and delicious dessert

As if that was not enough, a small
treasure chest with chocolate goodies, finito!

May 20, Parma to Lake Garda/San Giacomo- Time to head to the mountains via Lake Garda, Italy's largest lake. It was great to get out of the city and head to higher elevation.  Rain once again, but not a problem in the car!  Our hotel was absolutely lovely and exceeded our expectations.  The view of the ski area across the road, the room, the spa, the food and spirits were excellent.  




Surprised when I saw this book where they were listed

Hotel bar looking out to the ski area


Cool local gins

More good stuff

Outdoor jacuzzi

Main dining room

Another delicious fish crudo

Lovely soup

Pasta with crudo shrimp and caviar

Can't miss with this.  We found the Courvoisier XO to be
lighter than others we've had.  Very enjoyable

Very from our room

May 21, Relaxing in San Giacomo- This was a full day of enjoying ourselves; short walk, massages, and tasting menu for dinner.

Finally some sun!

More mountain views

Excellent pizza  lunch

True Greek salad

Excellent Veneto rose and a great EVO

Great local gin

Pre-dinner martini

Tasting menu area of the restaurant


Incredible local Pinot.  A real surprise.

Mushrooms

Interesting beef tartare





Incredible deconstructed tiramisu




May 21, San Giacomo, Lake Garda to Mira-  It was tough to say goodbye to this lovely resort.  The owners were incredibly gracious.  I highly recommend this place.  We drove over the mountain then along the eastern shore of Lake Garda.  It was bustling!  The Giro de Italia bike race would be riding the western shore the next day.  There were cyclists everywhere.  

The most northern end of the lake

Heading south

Once out of the mountains we headed to our hotel Villa Franceschi in Mira very near Venice.  This was a Relais & Chateaux hotel that combines superior accommodations with gourmet food.  The grounds were beautiful and no one was there.  Unfortunately out tasting menu dinner was a real let down.  The owner came out to apologize for the shrimp dish and took 70€ off of our bill.  A nice gesture.  So much for the big final night and meal.

Beautiful hotel grounds

More of the grounds

Never turn down an upgrade to a Jr. Suite

The pool


Dining al fresco


Fabulous wine.  Our second bottle on this trip


Double thumbs up on our first oysters in Italy


Beautiful dish, but the shrimp was really overcooked

Main course, branzino




May 23, 24- Mira to Venice, home- We had a 20 minute drive to our last night's stay in the Marriott Courtyard.  Good old reliable Marriott.  A decent little restaurant connected to the hotel.  It was a 5 minute shuttle to the airport.  Perfect for us.  Arrivederci Italy! 

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