thursday in Piacenza

[mimitabby]

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.






























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

[Blueberry]

Beautiful! Looks like a great time - thanks for sharing

[sbctwin]

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

[Tuckervill]

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

Have fun!

Karen

[mtkitchn]

Great pics, mimi! What a wonderful ride!

[mimitabby]

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

[margo49]

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

[mimitabby]

Margo, check out this thread; i am riding a similar bike here. many many of these bikes are being used.
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=18509

[sandra]

I am just GREEN with envy! That looks like such a wonderful trip and so much fun. Thanks for the pictures!!

[RoadRaven]

Chiming in late, but great to be kept posted

Glad all is going so well and you are both having so much fun

[maillotpois]

Wow - I just saw this thread! Great photos, Mimi!!

So I gather you guys had a good time... It looks just beautiful. How much riding were you able to do? More importantly, how was the FOOD??

[mimitabby]

The food was excellent of course. In Northern Italy, the bread is rather disappointing. However, there was enough other really good stuff to make up for it. We could buy southern Italian bread if we knew where to look for it, and our friends did that for us.

The ravioli in the picture is hand braided (each one!) and they all have tails. This was in a restaurant.

The Chino is a slightly bitter soft drink that Raleighdon loved.

you all know what Gelato is, right?

[oxysback]

Mmmmm, gelato!

Great pics!!

[RoadRaven]

Well, being part Italian in my bloodlines, this is a country I would like to go to. And coming back to look at these pics again, and see your pleasure Mimi, has decided me that when I go on my round-the-world bike ride (incorporating a ride with CC on the wild side of Perth) I will def bike here... so bike friendly - isn't that excellent???

(Yes... I know what gelato his...
*does best "Homer' impression...*
ge-la-to...ahahahaha)

[maillotpois]

Okay, that's just not fair!!! You can't post pictures like that!!!

Wow, that's proscuitto, right?? Oh man, salami, everything... now I'm hungry.

Mimi, did you have a ride report or trip report thread? If so I missed it.