September 6 – 13, 2026
Day 20: Sunday, Sept 6… Sunday is meant to be a day of rest, so we rested. We gave our bodies and minds a much needed break after playing mountain goat for twelve straight days. We ate. We drank. We repacked. We plotted. We read. We surfed. But mostly, we embraced the idea that “supine is divine!”
Day 21: Monday, Sept 7… Today we start our bike ride in earnest – with a train ride! Twenty euros gets us and our bikes out of the foothills and past a section of busy road we’ve already ridden. Today’s goal – Castelfranco Veneto to Vicenzia. Dead flat. Pretty agricultural country. Phoenix hot! One note: for all the billions Google makes, you would think they could do better than send us down an overgrown dirt path to an impassable pond. Doesn’t seem unreasonable, but maybe that’s just me.
Day 22: Tuesday, Sept 8… In 49ad “Vicetia” was officially recognized as a city of the Roman Empire. Today “Vicenza” is a Unesco World Heritage site, thanks mostly to architect Andrea Palladio. His designs were cutting edge at the time. Most of his buildings from the 1500’s still exist. Point of interest: The White House was designed by architects using Palladio’s principles of design.
Before getting “citied out” we opted to spend a day seeing Vicenza. We walked cool, empty streets, serenaded by ancient chants from early morning mass in ancient churches. One of the famous Palladio buildings is the Olympic Theater. It is the oldest indoor ancient theater in existence – almost 500 years old. You don’t need to know the innovative details that went into its construction to appreciate this theater. It is enough to park your backside on the original wooden benches and just let your eyes wander.
Before the heat crushed our spirits, we wandered the city and explored some of the notable tourist attractions.
Day 23: Wednesday, Sept 9… We opened the shutters this a.m. to black skies, a brilliant pyrotechnics, and walls of water being hurled against the windows. Every cyclist’s dream! Forecast says this is our life today and tomorrow. The reality of riding in rain is not nearly as bad as the thought of riding in the rain. So we packed, dressed, and headed south during a lull. Sure enough, an hour later we had stowed our rain gear and rode a southbound wind train.
The rain did stalk us throughout the day, and finally caught us as we reached the outskirts of Montagnana. We used another lull to make a quick inspection of the town.
Day 24: Thursday, Sept 10… The Po River valley is broad, flat plain stretching across almost all of northern Italy. These fertile lands fed a growing Roman empire, and were the basis for wealthy and powerful northern Italian dynasties. They are still well used today. While not the most scenic, it has been a pleasant (and flat) few days to get our cycling legs back.
More of the same today, with two noteworthy events. Back in the day, a bridge acoss the Adige River near Montagnana was important enough for Rome to station troops to protect it. In 586ad, a massive flood rerouted the river. Today, ten miles south of Montagnana, we crossed the Adige. That must have been some flood.
Later, we rode along and finally crossed the Po River. It has clearly been affected by the drought and heat wave that has devastated the rest of Europe this summer.
In the 1300’s, the people of Ferrara were exhausted by famine, hunger and oppressive taxes. Anger toward their ruler boiled over in a bloody riot. The ruler, Niccolo d’Este, did what any good ruler would do. He saw their suffering, heard their complaints, and built a castle to protect himself from his people. Brilliant!
Between bouts of rain, we wandered the narrow streets searching to quell our own hunger.
Day 25: Friday, Sept 11… More flat. Unfavorable winds. Traffic. In an effort to find less traveled roads … we may have overshot!
Eventually the forest paths dumped us out onto the frantic streets of Bologna. It was a bit jarring! While drivers have generally been very considerate of us, the raging hormones were on full display on the city streets as drivers competed with other. It was a relief to get to our quiet little corner of old town.
Our relief quickly faded. Soon after stopping, I noticed an oil puddle under my bike. My “indestructible”, “bulletproof”, “ride around the world” Pinion drive left a big, steaming dump for me to clean up! In plain English, an internal seal seems to have ruptured. Important lubricating oil is suddenly no longer in position to do what it is supposed to be doing.
I had identified a problem. The bigger question is “Now what?”
Day 26: Saturday, Sept 12… I made good use of my normal insomnia to research “Now what?” There were no good answers. By all accounts, this requires a professional fix to avoid ruining the drive. OK. A trip to and from the Pinion factory to fix naughty drives takes six –ish weeks on average. Perhaps you see the problem. Without a working bike, or a way to fix it in a timely fashion – our trip is over!
No sense wallowing in self-pity over a 1st world problem. We had a city to explore! For two hours Rafaela led us around a bustling historic city center. Some interesting tidbits from our walk.
-All 24 remaining towers in central Bologna are leaning. (Take that Pisa). Only one needs help to make sure it continues standing.
-Bologna is home to the oldest university in Europe. If memory serves, seems like we have visited several “oldest universities”.
-The city fathers established legal prostitution in one location in the city. When Napolean and the French conquered the city, they moved the red light district across the street from the university. Did I mention only fabulously wealthy noble’s sons could afford university?
After our tour and lunch, we addressed the elephant in the room. What now? Just fly home? Rent a car, stash bikes and road trip? Stash bikes and roam via train? Rent a bike? All options come with significant pros and cons. We both are riding an emotional roller coaster. Sorry to leave you all with a cliff hanger, but as of right now, we are still trying to figure out our next steps.
As we have reminded ourselves, ultimately it’s all good. We’ve had an amazing month in Italy so far. We are blessed beyond belief to even have options. As with much of our “no plan planning”, we will probably be just as surprised as you by how the next weeks unfold. Until then…STC.
