Italy

A few more pics and a bit of story to keep you up to date.

Market day in Rho, Italy

View from our hotel window after a summer storm. The rainbow was a perfect double, but doesn't show so well here.

The Farmer's Market in Rho again. The vendors take great care in the arrangement of their produce. No bagging your own here!

Farmer's Market in Rho

Holiday Inn, Italian style. This building was an old, abandoned cotton factory when the hotelier bought it and gave it a top notch renovation. Very stylish. Rooms can go for as much as 600 euros a night. Thank you Priority Club points...



August 14 - 16:

Bob and Rick had a tough drive through the rain along the coast of France and Italy and up here to the town of Rho, near Nerviano where the Miglia Italia ride starts tonight (Monday 8/16.) Sophie slept most of the way here and returned immediately, refusing our offers of a place to stay the night or at least take a real nap.

Bob, Rick and I walked around during a break in the rain and soon were joined by Jan Erik who we had met on the Cascade 1200 earlier this year. Since Sophie had decided not to do the ride, we had room in our two rooms to share so we were back to four. Rick and I ordered a spaghetti dish that had to be shared by two. We weren't sure what the other word in the dish was but what the heck... We were quite surprised to find we had spaghetti with a half a lobster on each plate! The funny thing is, I remember part of the word on the menu, and can't find it anywhere in spite of finding a couple of words for lobster! It was good anyway. After our raw salmon in Carces, Bob is playing it safe with pizza and sticking to words he knows. Tempting, but I went for risotto alla milanese last night and it was good. Then we introduced Bob to Tiramisu and I think we have a new fan of that dessert!

Last night we had an incredible rainstorm, lightning, great cracks of thunder, and rain...did I mention rain? wow. Ricardo at the front desk, assured me the forecast was much better for the rest of the week, though, and that the boys should have fairly good weather throughout their ride. We hope so. The storm lasted less than a couple hours, but would have left everything and everyone soaked and the roads would have been very slick.

Rick and Jan Erik both have SPOTS so I'll be keeping track of them. Also, I think the Miglia folks are supposed to do some online listing of riders as they go through the controls. I'll add that link here as well.

Ciao for now!