June 14 - Aosta to St Vincent

On the way up to today's summit - mountains and wildflowers.

I haven't said much about Valle d'Aosta and I should have. It is a beautiful narrow valley that starts at the foot of Monte Bianco (Mt Blanc) and runs for several miles. There are very steep hills on each side with snow-capped mountains in the background. As we ride down the valley, our routes take us up and down these hills and into some of the famous mountain passes. The passes that I have managed to reach the summit still have lots of snow on the side of the road. The shorter hills also have patches of snow. The creeks and rivers are running high. The hills are very green and the alpine fields are covered with wildflowers.

Today's route from Aosta to St Vincent took us into the hills on the north side of the valley. The roads we were on were designed to service the tiny villages along the way. They were narrow with fairly steep sections. The was almost no traffic. I rode with Julie. Each time we went around a corner we oohed and aahed at the vistas.

We reached the summit of our main climb at around 22km and found a bar that served us panini and Fanta. Even though it was a little cool, we ate outside on the patio so we could look at the view. We had caught up to Debbie just before this and she joined us for lunch. Henry and Marie arrived just as we were leaving. On the downhill, we caught up to Midge and Janet and helped Midge change a flat tire. By the time we reached the end of the descent, we had a chain of riders. This helped a lot because one of the turns was a little vague. By majority vote, we managed to get back on route and reach our hotel in St Vincent with no futher problems. We were pretty tired when we reached the outskirts of town and were struggling on the uphills getting into town.

This ride will be one of my favorites for a long time. It was reasonably challenging, very scenic and had minimal traffic.

Here is a link to today's ride. The elevation gain is more accurate than previous days.

Dinner was at a pizzeria about a 1/4 mile walk from the hotel. I really enjoyed our first course of prosciutto and melon, mussels and green salad. The pizza was OK. When we walked back to the hotel, a talent show was getting organized in the piazza. Looks like we will have some entertainment as we try to go to sleep.