Augustas Cycles

We are Frank and Daphne, a couple of not so young cycle tours from Canada, and we're off on another adventure in Europe. This time we're setting out to explore the Via Claudia Augusta, a historic route through the Alps that follows an old Roman road that connects the river Danube and the Adriatic Sea. We're flying into Frankfurt, so we'll be riding a few hundred extra kilometers from the airport to get to where the Roman road begins. So join us as we make our way from Frankfurt in Germany to the city of Venice in Italy, following in the footsteps of the Romans. We had our bikes stored here, and now we're getting all packed up again to climb back up to the San Giovanni Pass to get back to the Adage Valley to continue south on the Via Claudia Augusta towards the city of Verona and eventually on down to the river Poe, where this branch of the Roman road ends in the town of Ostilia. It just so happens that this part of Lake Garda is a mecca for mountain biking, and therefore it's well supplied with bike shuttles. So we're getting a little assistance up to the pass this morning, thus avoiding that push up the 12% grade that we had so much fun coming down several days ago. So we're in the little community of Mori, we just took a taxi with her bicycles up the pass of the giant steep hill from Lake Garda and we are all set to ride, all loaded up. It feels good to be back on the bikes. We've had five days off the bikes a day around Lake Garda, where we did bike, but not very much. And then an overnight in Verona via train and then two nights in Florence, visiting with my brother and sister-in-law David and Rose. And although those cities are absolutely stunning, they're very busy and so good to be back on the bikes in the country. That's where we're happiest. What a beautiful path. We're so lucky because right now in Austria, Poland and part of Czechia, Czechia, there are devastating floods with n Weather is absolutely terrible there. We're very fortunate to be where we are right now. As we pass through acres and acres of vineyards this morning, we're enjoying relaxed cycling on really good paths. Approaching the hamlet of Pilcante, we take a break to read about the important trading that took place along the Via Claudia Augusta. This sign had a nice map of the Roman roads as well. And you can see from this map that pretty soon we're going to be leaving the region of Trentino and entering Veneto. MUSIC Just north of the community of Avio, we stopped at this great biker cafu00e9 for food and drinks. Good timing for us as it was now after 12 and were ready for refueling. Okay, back on the road. As we head on south, this section of the route has the cycle path sandwiched between the river and the Otto Strada. It is the main A22 north-south motorway that heads all the way north through to the Brenner Pass to Austria. The valley isn't very wide here, but it's going to get even narrower up ahead of us. Right now we're just by the town of Avio. And Lake Garda is behind this mountain range on our right. I think it's about 50 kilometers long. And the name of this big mountain that separates us from Lake Garda is Mount Poldo. We have now left Trentino behind and we have entered the region of Veneto. The topography is changing. It's interesting to watch the transition in the landscape. As we continue through the endless vineyards, although we could tell the mountains were tapering off, what one can't appreciate from the bikes is just how dramatic the river valley is becoming ahead of us, turning into a very narrow gorge. This gorge marks the end of the Valogorina valley. The river in the gorge can be prone to flooding, so just So we actually have our first real climb of the day. Well I think it's the only real climb of the day. We haven't had to push up any mountains for a little while, we're getting spoiled. At least we'rewarded with a view. We're here at this viewpoint on the cycle way, but from this point we still couldn't see the gorge ahead. And on the hill above us overlooking this narrowing of the valley is a very imposing fortress, which was built by the Austrians to defend its border in the mid 1800s. It's adjacent to the small town of Riva-le-Verenes, which we'll be making our way up too shortly. For most of today's ride so far, we've been following the same route as Eurovelo 7, the sun route. But here in Riva-le-Verenes, Eurovelo 7 peals off to the west to head towards Lake Garda, whereas we on the Via Claudia will soon make our way back downhill to rejoin the Adage River and its canal towards the town of Bucalango and onto Verona. We have some olive trees in this area. This little root that we're on now has been a nice change, a nice change of scenery through some woodland. And then the descending began. The fun would continue all the way back down to the Adage River level again beyond the gorge, although without any good views of the gorge itself. I was old, I was young, I was sitting in the sun, I was tired of the run, I was done. Life was brave, life was hard, in a way an awful card you can't win. The losing hand, but the rain stopped falling and the line on the floor was crossed. And the pain I'd been feeling washed away to return another day. I was cold, I was bold, I had fragmented my soul into pieces contradicting themselves. Perhaps it is, as it is, how the world is the mess means that every heart and soul needs to be whole. And the road signs keep changing as the road stretches out ahead. And the moon keeps on changing all I want to do is lie down in bed. Well we've come down from the wooded slopes that you might be able to see behind me there. We would follow this section of the Cyclopistad del Sole for about 12 kilometers to the town of Bucolengo, sticking to the banks of this impressive canal. So we really have left the mountains now, they're peatered out. And the quarter-past four we're going to press on, we're still following this adige, the Sole Canal, the actual real adige river is over there somewhere. According to the Via Claudia official website, this is an irrigation channel that was established during Mussolini's reign. We even got to ride across a couple of aqueducts along this section of the ride. How are you? Are you blue? I can sense the sadness in you. Don't you worry, every stone passes on. 56 kilometers on our clocks at the moment. Nice easy riding along this canal still once we finish the hill section. I don't even know the name of this town but we're sourcing out grocery store to get some food. I don't even know what town this is. We don't know where we are, do we? It's five to six and we're somewhere within. . . Okay we're still away from Verona so we'll see where we end up tonight but we needed to stop and get some food. So when we stopped for groceries there at about six we decided rather than pushing on into Verona where there is meant to be a nice campground in the center. We're just going to take a little apartment not far from here. It's been the night there and then we can ride into Verona in the morning. A perfect little studio apartment in the Hamlet of San Vito served us well for a comfy night and a great pizza restaurant up the road rounded off the day nicely. This morning it's Friday and we are in a small, I guess you'd call it maybe a suburb of Verona. I think it's called Setimal and this is the apartment where we stayed last night. It was really good. This morning we will complete the ride to Verona which is about 14 kilometers and head on towards the river Pole. Off we go! Friday morning just leaving our little apartment going to head to Verona. So we're on the path along the canal approaching Verona and I had to stop because this is the first time I've ever seen kiwis, fruit growing in Europe. We're still following the canal here but the Adige River isn't far off to our left and on the other side of the river to the north of it that is lies the Valpaulichella wine area. Probably most famous for its Amoroni wine. So we're well into the suburbs of Verona now heading towards the historical center we think. So as we enter Verona we're finally crossing the actual Adige River most of the way down the valley from Laigodegarda we've been following. It'subsidiary canal. This was a lovely way to be approaching the historic center of Verona on our bikes. This fortified bridge has become the symbol of Verona. It's the Castel Vecchio bridge also known as the Ponte Scalegiero named after the Scalegir dynasty that ruled the city in the Middle Ages. It connects the Castel Vecchio on the opposite side of the river with the left bank and nowadays it's a pedestrian only bridge. The original bridge was built in the mid 1300s but was destroyed by the retreating Germans in April 1945 but it was completely rebuilt in a very similar style using red bricks and white marble. The castle itself nowadays houses a muse We continue into the old part of the city enjoying the mon For many centuries this would have been the center of economic social and religious life in Verona. In Roman times it housed a for It hosts a daily market in the middle. Just feet away from that hustle and bustle we enjoyed a delicious lunch at a quiet street cafe. This nearby Piazza is a much quieter place where you could sit and reflect on the writings of Dante whose statue stands in the center. Verona was named a UNESCO site in 2000 justifiably as the city contains so many well preserved elements representing its 2000 year history including from the Roman period. And of course one of the best known Roman structures is the wonderful amphitheater which is still used today for concert performances, fairs and operas. It has 44 tiers of marble seats. It's located in the huge Piazza Bray. And of course the other must see landmark is the famous Romeo and Juliet balcony long associated with Shakespeare's tragic love story set here in Verona. We're heading out of Verona now. It hasn't been too bad. Well some traffic to contend with but not crazy. But here we'relying on Camus. There isn't any cycle signage at the moment. We're very little. We left the Adage river behind in Verona and gone to are all the perfect cycle paths with signage. Here we're in the real non-touristic Italy making our way through Verona's fruit and vegetable suppliers and also a well known wine producing area around Soma Campagna and Costosa. The Via Claudia route that we're following here takes a wide sweep to the west once leaving Verona. This is a deviation from the original Roman road which is believed to have followed the modern-day railway route straight south of Verona. Most cyclists probably finished their Via Claudia Augusta cycle adventure in Verona if not earlier at Lake Garda. And those would both be perfect places to end on a high note and both have good transportation links for onward travel. But for those of us with plenty of time why not see the Roman road to its official terminus at the river Poe and take in a completely different landscape from what we've experienced so far. We made it to the town of Villa Franca di Verona at about 3. 30 in the afternoon not knowing anything about the place prior to our arrival. We're having a well-deserved coffee. We had to navigate a nasty busy section of highway on the way into this town. A bit of quick research at this point revealed very poor accommodation availability on the route ahead so we soon concluded that there'd be nothing wrong with spending the night right here and we found a lovely hotel right on the main street. This gave us time to explore the town and it turned out to be a little gem of a place full of history but really nice and quiet. It turns out that this town is where the Treaty of Villa Franca was signed between French Emperor Napoleon III and Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph in 1859 thus ending the second Italian War of Independence. And just down the street is the house where much earlier Napoleon Bonaparte spent the night before one of his battles, the Battle of Arcolu00e9e in 1796. Further down at the end of the street is a castle, the Scala Ghero Castle built in the 12th to 13th century which we had a chance to explore. To our surprise this castle was the setting for one of the scenes in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The smell of chicken roasting along the street gave us the idea for an easy dinner which we had in our hotel room tonight. Ostealia and the River Po are only about 50 kilometers from here now so in the next episode we'll share our tri