Day 7: Tolmezzo – Arraba

I can’t quite believe I’m in Italy already – country six, so I’m officially more than half way through the list, and pretty much, the trip itself. Looking back on the last few days from Leipzig through to Fohnsdorf, I’ve been pretty busy both day and night; doing what I can to enjoy every second of the adventure, but also making sure that I’m making good progress and will be back in Holland in time for the Ferry without spending every waking moment on the road.

I’ve put in some pretty serious hours over the last few days – nine hours to Brno, eleven to Fohnsdorf, and another nine or so getting to Tolmezzo yesterday, with impromptu drinks and socialising at each destination. Plenty of noise banging beer glasses on the table before drinking in the Czech Republic, shouts of “prost!” in Austria as glasses were raised, and a more quiet and civilised, but no less entertaining and special night in Italy yesterday evening.

I had a great nights sleep in Tolmezzo, which is hardly surprising after the farce that was my slumber in Austria, however despite my best efforts, I awoke to find my jacket, jumper and gloves still soaking from the downpour that cut short my journey yesterday. Whilst I don’t think I would have actually made it to Verona, and I’m so glad I stopped at Tolmezzo, I had hoped I’d be a bit further through Italy. Despite my gear being wet I had no alternative other than to get back into it and head back on the road, trying to reach Varese. I figured it’d all dry out on the journey there eventually; and maybe it would have, if it wasn’t raining again as I packed my panniers ready to set off for the days travelling.

Any chance of today being at all comfortable soon went out the window, with non-stop rain, (some of which was pretty torrential in the mountain regions) soaking me and all my gear for the first 40km of the day. After that it brightened up a little, but rain was still frequent and heavy – the occasional tunnels through the mountains giving me a very short respite from the frankly horrendous conditions, but which were over far too quickly.

I trundled on though, trying to rack up as many miles as I could, but not forgetting to enjoy the scenery and the views, whilst also trying my very best to look on the funny side of things, thinking about what I must look like drenched to the bone and shivering as I tried to navigate my way through small and remote rural Italian villages dotted around the route – most of which was through beautiful mountain regions I never even knew existed, or could be so utterly impressive, although it was hard to appreciate everything as much as I would have liked as I did my damnest to plough on through the rain. On more than one occasion I had my rear tyre lock on me as I braked coming down the twists and turns of the mountainside. Still, the adrenaline kept me going, and I’ve been riding Betty long enough to know what to do when the unthinkable happens and I feel the bike sliding out from under me.

Eventually though, after five hours of being cold, wet, and pretty much fed up of feeling like I wasn’t actually getting anywhere as the road snaked down one mountain and up another for countless kilometres, I gave in.

I stopped at a hotel in Arraba just after 3pm, and rode Betty into the hotel garage which I’d noticed was open before walking into the reception with my helmet and gloves still on, rainwater dripping from my face, cold and tired from such an arduous treck. What a sight I must have looked! Happily it turns out that the hotel has a drying room, which now contains the majority of my stuff. There is also a sauna, swimming pool and jacuzzi downstairs and both dinner and breakfast are included in the €79 price for the night. Oh, and they have WiFi too. With every box checked, my numb hands struggled to find my passport as I booked myself in immediately.

The rest of the day has been spent relaxing, sorting out emails, updating the blog, catching up with friends I’ve not spoken too for a while and enjoying a long overdue and (I think) well deserved bath. Dinner was also fantastic! A great four course meal, accompanied by a fairly large glass of red wine. Having not eaten since breakfast, and being fairly exhausted (despite actually loving every minute of my trip deep down) today has been just what I needed to rejuvenate before I set out on my travels up to Lichtenstein tomorrow.

So, Italy. Thus far, amazing scenery - especially riding through national parks; crazy drivers who expect you to be at least 15mph over the speed limit at all times (I also think car manufacturers must omit indicators to save money in Italy too – nobody uses them!) and some of the friendliest and welcoming people I’ve ever met, but *really* lousy weather. I’m told this will improve tomorrow - fingers crossed.