Demonte, Italy
What a night last night was! The winds were blowing the tent flat. I kept worrying that Blaze would blow away. Finally around midnight, because I wasn't sleeping just worrying, I decided to tie the tent to Blaze and kill 2 birds with one stone, as they say. I didn't do it earlier because I kept convincing myself that's he couldn't blow away...and it was cold and windy out there. But to get some sleep, I finally did...and was surprised at how warm it was. Seemed warmer than earlier. But when the wind stopped the skies must have cleared because it was cold and dry this morning. I waited for the sun to break over the mountains...nearly 9:30 and it didn't warm things up much. Forecast was for mid 20's. Yikes! I'm borderline prepared for those temps. Got saddled up and on the road a bit after 10. With tons of layers on! But pedaling up hill does seem to have a warming factor. Yet the wind was quite chilly. Hit the top of the pass a bit after 11 and the store that someone mentioned wasn't open (if that's what that building was).
I was going to put something together for breakfast (yogurt, dry oatmeal, nuts, and raisins...no fruit:() but it was too cold and windy to stick around. A great windy road down. They actually number and countdown the curves.
The only other cyclist I saw on this pass was a girl coming up today with a small backpack on. What a climb she had! I think they always look like a worse climb when I'm going down them than when I'm climbing. Why is that?
So today was the search for food. I wouldn't die of starvation but I was feeling nervous. And then going through an ancient quiet village, I see a old man with a plastic bag that looks like groceries. Where's you get that! Pointing at his bag. Remembering that I'm now in Italy and don't speak a word of it other than Ciao. So I start throwing French words at him. My brain goes to the foreign language dept and pulls up whatever it finds there:). 3 kms he says in French. And as I pedal away I'm wondering Did he walk 3 kms for those few things? And that's out of this village. Oh well. Let's see what happens. About 2.5 kms down the road I see a Bar sign and lots of types of food words and lots of cars! Truck stop! And it's lunch time. Ok. Let's eat! I eat out so rarely but I'm hungry and this is Italy now.
And the waitress spoke English. But she was busy trying to get all the workers fed. I told her not to worry. I'm in no rush. They did only a menu of the day and you could take some or all the courses. All please! Entre (appetizer) was a choice of pasta with tomato sauce or rizotto with veggies. I took the latter. Main course was pork steak or rabbit something. Pork for me. The rizotto was yummy. The pork steak came with green beans and garbanzo beans - not mixed. Dessert was creme caramel. And an espresso that I didn't drink. 13€. Not cheap but really delicious.
And she told me where the mini market was, but it was closed for another hour. Why me? Let's keep coasting down out of these mtns and hope it's warmer.
I have trepidation when entering a new country, especially not speaking the language. I don't even know how to say Hi in Italian. Come to find out, they don't have one word. So I say Hi. The people I've had to approach asking directions have been so nice and helpful even if we don't have a common language. Why do I forget this? It was a good day. I even got thrown a kiss from an old man trying to help me find the grocery store. He was adorable!
So tonight I'm camped on the river again just out of town. I heard about a bike path over here so after I got some food I decided to cross over and try it. And right at the river bridge was a picnic site: my camp site!
I lose the sun so early in the mountains. By 4:30 I was in the shadow of the mountain. I can see it across the valley on the other mountains and that's a bit warming. Gonna be another cold night. I gotta get SOUTH!!!
Livin' the life,
BagLady
Facebook: Kathryn Mossbrook Zimmerman
No comments:
Post a Comment