Lago d'Iseo to Lago di Garlate

Wednesday September 12, 2018, 48 miles (77 km) - Total so far: 6,101

miles (9,819 km)

Posted via email Wed Sep 12 12:35:02 2018 PDT

Today was challenging, and not really for the right reasons!! We started off following the route off the Italy Cycling Guide website*. Which was good until we encountered a long stretch of gravel - unridable in several places (needed a mountain bike). After a lot of pushing we were briefly back on tarmac.....then back to gravel. I had something of a sense of humour failure and demanded a re route using Komoot!!

*our other experiences with using this site have been excellent!!

While this did put us on proper roads, it also chucked us into heavy traffic. The section through Bergamo was mostly pretty good (and Bergamo Alta looks wonderful!) but once we were out the other side, it was a busy trunk road. Once again, we felt reasonably safe thanks to the courteous drivers, but it's just no fun being continually overtaken, and often by HGVs.

This continued all the way to the Rivabella campsite. We'd highly recommend stopping at the 'Once upon a time' gelateria in Calolziocorte. The best gelato we've had in Italy! Find it on google - the sign is in Italian.

Rivabella is a lovely spot, right on the lake. There's a supermarket nearby too, and it's tucked away from the road (you can still hear it, but it's not too bad). I can hear karaoke from across the other side of the lake, can't have it all I suppose!!

Have to say, our overwhelming feeling is that the Italian Lakes just aren't that great for cycling.....but perhaps our plans for Como will change this.....