thursday in Piacenza

Today Raleighdon and I went for a ride in the countryside near Podenzano. The roads are very narrow, but fortunately the ones that were busy had a good shoulder and the ones that were 1 lane wide had almost no traffic.
the most amazing thing about the ride was that even though lots of heavy trucks passed us, none of them threatened us; and my only fear was my lack of coordination. Italian drivers do not "have it in" for bicyclists; and if things get too tight; they will actually pullover or stop to let you go; and no one has blasted us with their horn except for our friend saying hello.

We were both on borrowed bikes that don't really fit; but they were nice light race bikes, so it made up for the minor discomforts on a 22 mile ride. we stayed in the valley and in 22 miles went through several little towns with names like Settima, Grassono Visconti (a medieval village that you can see in some of the pictures) where we had gelato, Quarto & Gossalengo.
the weather was great (for a couple from seattle) it was partly cloudy with a little bit of a breeze, and about 70 degrees.

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we have been seeing trucks full of tomatoes like this one all week.

Beautiful! Looks like a great time - thanks for sharing:)

Wonderful pics! Makes me want to go to Italy more than ever....

gee, all the streets look deserted! It's still beautiful, though!

Have fun!

Karen

Great pics, mimi! What a wonderful ride!

the roads that we took pictures on were not the busy ones.:eek: :eek: believe me, the roads are not deserted! their farm roads are a lot like ours, only much narrower.

Hello, Meem. Glad you guys are having fun!

So very beautiful. I was teased all day because the pictures wouldn't come up from work (work really stunts my leisure time sometimes!). Ooooh, I really would love to be there and I am so happy you are having a great time.

Hi Mimi!! Glad you're having fun. Love the pics.

Drink some grappo for me will ya.

Hey Mimi! Great pictures! Sounds like you're having a wonderful time!

Mimi, whenever you post pic I miss Italy so much!! Gorgeous stuff, keep it coming please!

Mimi, we LOVE it! You and Raleighdon rule!

Thanks for the pics! :) I'm so jealous, I loooove Europe.

Mimi, those pix are beautiful. I especially like the bike with the basket.

Oh What a gorgeous old bike!
And still used!
The spokes! The chainguard! The light (dynamo??)! The skirt-guard! The curves in the frame! The basket! The brake levers!
This has made my evening, Mimi