On to Milan

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Geo: 45.4637, 9.18813

Our day started out with lovely breakfast company.
Last night, there was a trip of folks sitting behind us, having quite the conversation in English, though it was clear it wasn't the native tongue for any of them (just based on the accents -- no issues with vocabulary!). I had been sitting with my back to them, so I could only hear them. But they recognized us, and we had a splendid conversation over breakfast. They're taking a few weeks of their vacation time to bike through Italy. On the topic of vacation time, when we mentioned that most Americans only get 2 weeks a year, you'd have thought (by the looks of horror on their faces) that we said everyone has to wear frogs on their feet and sit in tubs of mud.

There was time in the schedule for something really absurd -- like sightseeing.

After packing up, we drove into the center of Vittorio Veneto, and parked, so that we could have a little stroll about town. Taking Alessandra's advice, we sought out the footpath along the canal, which turned out to be just the perfect way to kill an hour or so.
Without a local guide to confirm it, we're speculating, but we think there were several sections of stone wall that were (re)built using whatever rubble could be salvaged after World War I.

That hour came and went pretty quickly, and it was time to head a short way down the road. Today's stage was coming near our area on westbound SS13, where it was crossed by SS51, which was the road south out of Vittorio Veneto. The plan was to get to the south side of SS13, watch the race come by, and then hop in the car to continue making our way toward Milan.

Well, you know what I'm going to say next.

The road was closed by the time we got there.

No worry, though. We pulled into the nearby gas station and parked, and just walked the 100 meters or so to the SS13. There was a teeny little hamlet at the intersection, so we sought out some shade by the tabbacheria. It was kinda fun to watch the locals all gather to watch this big spectacle coming through town. Everybody c'mon down, bring the kids, bring the dogs (don't worry about water -- they'll probably be just fine).

As the race came closer, we moved back across the road to find a spot where our Colorado flag might have a chance at being seen. I found a great spot, where there was nobody else and there was a sign to which I could clip one corner of the flag.

What is it, with Italian men, just standing in front of people? He had a whole road on which to stand.
And so did the next guy.
And the next guy.

A little irritated, I moved across the road.

Yep.

'nother guy standing right in my line of vision.

Ah, well.

The race came by, knocked poor Gnorm over, and whoosh, they were gone again.

Since we were going to be on the road for the next few hours (the bikes were due back at 4:30, and the car due back at 5), we scoped out a market, grabbed some bread with which to make PB&Js on the fly, and a couple Cokes to stick in the glove box.

Next time you rent a car in Europe, see if the glove box is tied in to the air conditioner. Makes a handy place to keep a beverage cool.

We listened to the race as we drove, as best as we could. For some reason, the jerry-rigged VPN/streaming setup we had would give us video pretty consistently, but the audio would cut out. Backwards, no?

We found the bike shop with very little issue, and with the help us an attentive neighbor, found the right door.
The 2 guys who took in our bikes (to then box them up and send them back to the Randotrek folks in Bolsano) couldn't have been more delightful. Cyclists themselves, they run a bike rental operation out of this garage. Looks like it's mostly folding bikes, but they had some road and mountain bikes as well. We chatted with them a little while about the Giro, them riding the Tampa the next day, and cycling in Italy in general. Lovely fellows. If you ever need to rent a bike in northern Italy, give a shout to http://www.milanobikerenting.com

As with any rental car return, we needed to top up the gas first. Google maps, find the gas station, and.....
Yeah, it didn't like my card. And I didn't have any small bills (I was pretty sure we wouldn't need €20 of fuel).
So we Googled directions to another station, and -- with the help of a man who spoke neither Italian nor English -- topped up with about €20 of fuel.

All the warm fuzzy feelings we got from the bike guys went right in the bin, with our Hertz return.

As with any major airport, it should be as simple as following the signs to Linate, then there should be signs to the car rental return.

Or car hire. Whatever.

Those signs point you that-a-way, and then basically leave you to figure it out for yourself.

We did eventually find it, and got the car returned (though the staff was quite a bit less friendly than I've come to expect from Hertz)

Did you know that the cabs can drive in the lanes designated for the trains? Neither did we.

Now that we'd been dropped off at the right address, we just needed to find the door.
What I had thought was a closed gate was, in fact, the door. And once that obstacle had been conquered, there was still the little matter of finding and figuring out the elevator. There were two, each just large enough for 2 people who like each other, or 1 person with a piece of luggage.

As we lounged in the air-conditioning in our room, I was looking at the train schedules, trying to sort out what time we needed to leave for Monza in the morning. I could swear that at least 1 source indicated that some of the trains might already be sold out.

Perhaps we ought to go get tickets tonight?

So, off to Centrale train station we went. It turns out that there were plenty of tickets still available, but it's a good thing we did this the night before. It gave us a chance to figure out the metro and its tickets, and figure out where in Centrale we'd need to be.

Metro & train tickets in hand, I found myself craving a Coke. Perhaps it was the McDonald's signs, perhaps not. But we succumbed to the temptation, and had ourselves a Coke, with ice. Mmmmmmmm.....

Once again, we consulted the Holy Books of Yelp and TripAdvisor, and decided on a pizza place for dinner.
It was a terribly hip place -- it reminded me quite a lot of being at a happy hour full of Bay area tech startup employees. Young, attractive, and thoroughly attached to their phones.

We ordered a beer, and a pizza, and an hour and a half later, we ate. The server was actually pretty good about checking in on us (well, after the first half hour or so). It seems our order got lost, and he really was pretty apologetic. He comped us another beer, and some gelato (which turns out to have been extremely delicious -- almost worth the wait).

Tomorrow: we ride!

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Photos

Achillea B&B
Cute little place!