Di’s Happy Birthday Hundred in the Veneto

 San Giorgio to Treviso

 Unfortunately Michael, our Master of Ceremonies and Planner extraordinaire was unable to start the stage today as his energy levels have continued to drop and his feeling of general malaise has continued to rise. He and Louise took the train on to Treviso so that Michael could visit the hospital there and seek answers as to what is wrong with him. Dianne and I rode alone today as Jane and Duckworth were riding a route  that Michael had put together from Komoot.

The long shadows in the photo below are indicative of the early start we made today. In our quest to beat the heat we got away from the Hotel San Giorgio di Nogaro at 6:34 a.m. which was our earliest start so far. This was facilitated by our host Giulio making sure the breakfast room would be open for us by 6:00 a.m., which we appreciated very much.

I vaguely remember discussing the route from San Giorgio to Triviso with Di when we were looking at Michael’s route for the day. Two factors led me to create this route which is longer and farther north than the route Michael used from Komoot. The first was that Di thought the closer to the sea and Venic we rode the busier it was likely to be. The second factor was that Di thought she would really like to do a century ride on her birthday. 

In the end it turned out to be a terrific route which took us mostly along fairly minor country roads with very little traffic. There was even a short bit of the “white roads” that Italy is famed for, and from which a very famous race called Strade Bianche - which became an instant classic when it was first introduced in 2007 - takes its name. Fairly regularly our small country roads would feed into a medium-sized road that would lead into a town and when we came out of town generally we’d detour off again onto quiet roads.

Here is a look at the route we took today.

Below is the elevation profile that Strava generated for the route. I think they estimated about 350 metres of elevation but in the end my file only registered 155 metres, which qualifies for the category of “pancake flat”. Generally that was very welcome because with the heat forecast we were happy not to have a lot of climbing. On the flip side, it was necessary to get out of the saddle from time to time just to ease the pressure on one’s backside!

Here is another early photo of Di as we rolled along in the delicious temperatures that we enjoyed in the first couple of hours …

It was really nice for us to be rolling along together again on quiet roads (like most of the ones we ride on in Tasmania) and not having to constantly study the GPS to make sure we didn’t miss some obscure turn and ending up having to backtrack of do arcane loops trying to get back on route! I took a couple of photos of the two of us riding together to commemorate the occasion of being able to do such a beautiful ride together on Dianne’s birthday, one out in the countryside  …

… and another in a built up area, which was just as quiet in terms of traffic at that early hour …

Here’s another small town along the way with another impressive church steeple …

Just past the halfway point of our ride we came to a very nice little cafe …

…  where we each had a second breakfast of caffé fredo ( cold coffee) - which interestingly enough does not generally seem to be available with a scoop of ice cream, an orange juice with ice and a delicious apple turnover.

That little pause and extra nutrition gave us both a nice burst of energy. It seemed also to help that the light but nagging nor’westerly seemed to have subsided.

It wasn’t long before we were consistently riding through vineyards. Here is an example of how heavily this area is covered in grape vines …

The agriculture in this area seems to be just so well … “organised”. Here are a couple of shots of Di riding past fields that have an air of being well-groomed, for the lack of a better description …

Our route was dotted with small to medium-sized towns. Almost every one had something of interest to look at. Here is an arresting sight right in front of us at a stop sign that we took an extra moment to photograph …

… and other town, this time with a more unusual church …

Here’s a close-up of the mosaic above the door …

In yet another town along the way we go back to a more conventional church tower set adjacent to the church itself …

This town had such a lovely streetscape that we both decided it deserved to be photographed  …

… and a closer look at the same gateway in the photo above, with a clock tower now visible …

I said to Di at this point, “It’s just off the route, but why don’t we ride in through that gate and see what’s inside?” Our decision to do so filled us with delight and turned out to be the highlight of the day.

At this point we’re in the small town of Sesto al Reghena/Siest, which is categorized as “one of the most beautiful villages of Italy. It was totally random that we rode through this town, and here’s what we found inside the courtyard, which is attached to the Abazzia Santa Maria in Silvis. 

Abutting the gate was this lovely wall which merely hinted at the beauty within …

Here’s a closer look at the gate itself …

… and what we found inside …

I really needed another look at the peacock …

Eventually we had to take our leave …

… but this short moment in time will help us remember this day of riding in the Veneto forever.

Back underway we started riding with more purpose. The day was heating up and the water in our drink bottles was getting warm. We passed a number of bakeries that were supposedly open according to info on the internet but all were closed. Di had some Glycogel Bears that she brought with her from our island home, aka Tasmania, which gave us a bit of a boost. We still had water in our bidons but we craved something cold.

We had a neat little winding section along a narrow country road which would probably qualify as a country lane in Britain. We were kind of tickled when it turned into a strada bianca, which we quite enjoyed …

A little further along we back on a road that went through a town and spotted a small supermarket, where Di was briefly engaged in a friendly chat with a local …

 … but when I went in while Di looked after the bikes I discovered it was a bit of a strange place. No individual bottles of  real juice, no individual ice creams that we could gobble down. Maybe I was having a “man’s look” as some sexists might say (😆) but I couldn’t find anything of that order after two laps. I settled on two bottles of Fanta and a 500 ml bottle of mineral water and brought them out to Di, who was looking after the bikes. This refreshed us enough get back on the bikes with the finish line not far away. Only five kilometres from our hotel I spotted a gelateria on our side of the road and a cafe bar on the other. I thought it might be a good idea to have one quick stop to freshen us up for that last stretch. It was starting to get quite hot. But Di, dogged as she can sometimes be said that no, she just wanted to “get it done”. I wasn’t going to argue. It was her birthday after all. 

I must say, it was a good thing to arrive. We delivered our bikes to a bike mechanic just near our hotel who, for a small fee,  looks after the bikes of any guests who stay with them.

The first thing we did then was to go and get a good meal and a big, big cold drink each - as well as a litre of mineral water to share.

We have been enchanted by Treviso. There are a lot of attractive old buildings around, like this one …

… and this one …

.. and there seems to be quite a bit of water flowing in and around the city, at least in this old part where we are staying …

To top off the day, Di found a great little restaurant called Mare Crudo just a few hundred metres from our hotel. It has a complete focus on seafood, much of it raw hence the name.

Here she is with the entree platter we shared to start our meal, with a glass of prosecco each …