We left our luxury hotel in Fossano shortly before 9:00 after another good buffet breakfast. This time I began the route with Vickie and John Beland. John also has a GPS. His is set differently than mine so that it recalculates a route when we stray from the supplied route. I like to ride with them because I have more confidence in John's routing skills.
The sky was clear and the temperature was in the 60s. Wind was not a factor. The first 20km was reasonably flat. We took a break after around 12 miles in a small town for coffee. We needed a boost because a lot of climbing was ahead. And climbing we did for the next 12 miles. Vickie has some problems with her chain and John stopped to help her. I didn't see that again until the top of the climb in Murazzano. I caught Margie Kirk and Sandy Emerson on the way up although catching Margie is a misnomer. She stayed ahead of me, pulling farther away on the steep parts of the hills.
We were surprised with Murazzano. It had a nice piazza at the top of the town with a couple of cafés. It was close to lunch time and we were hungry. I picked Cafe Gianduia because of its color scheme and because of the item on its chalk board. My choice was a plate of sausage and cheese with jam. The ingredients were all local. You can see the yummy presentation in the above photo. The jam went on the cheese.
I rode out of town with Margie and Sandy. After a little confusion, we got back on route. I lost them on a downhill when I dropped my chain. After I put it back on, they were nowhere in sight. So I rode solo the rest of the way. Being solo and not being able to consult with John about the correct route, my GPS decided to take me on a secret alternate route. Julie saw me and flagged me down, but we decided that I should continue on my route because it merged with the real route in a few short kilometers. I get bonus points, though, because I had some killer grades of 12-15%.
I found Hotel Barolo and checked into my humble single room. I was a little disturbed when the hot water in my sink and shower was a rusty brown. It soon cleared up and all is well. The desk clerk explained that my room had been vacant for a while, so water had settled in the old pipes and turned color from them.
It was warm today so I was a little dehydrated. A beer on the terrace tasted good. We are now officially in wine country. The agriculture has changed from fields of corn and durum wheat and orchards of plums, apples and pitted fruit to vineyards. They surround us. I am told that this is a famous wine area. I will test that theory at Happy Hour and dinner.
We tried several red wines at Happy Hour. I could tell the difference between the older wine and the newer ones. I am sticking with old. We sat on the hotel's terrace overlooking the 360 degree view of the area's vineyards.
We had another group dinner at our hotel. The hotel and restaurant are together. I had a flan of cheese with pesto sauce, thin slices of pork with cooked carrots and a desert ice cream flavored with rum and bananas with a crust around it. It was all very good.
It is getting late again. Buona Notte.
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