Day 3 - Social Ride to Villa Emo
We first heard about the Italian Cycling Center from a guy we met in Vietnam on our biking tour there earlier this year. Bob Kunkel had nothing but good things to say about the cycling in Italy and he highly recommended the ICC for the combination of great rides and great food. The nice thing about being in a place at the base of a large set of mountains near the Dolomites is that there are literally dozens of different rides to do. We are located at the base of Montegrappa which will provide us with a challenging 27km climb to enjoy sometime this week. The Italian Cycling Center hosts mostly Americans and has been in business for more than 20 years. George has been running this place hosting numerous people over the years. George leads many of the rides here and he is a very impressive rider, especially when you consider that he is 76 years old! When you first meet him he seems a bit grumpy (which he is) but he warms up after a couple of days. Each day George also provides us all with a ‘reading of the menu’ session, in which he reads the food selections in English to the riders and they make their selections. If you miss the reading you either have to guess or you make George more grumpy. Not many people here speak English so we really value the translation services that George provides. Food here is top notch, as is the wine which flows at lunch and dinner.
Today’s ride was a social ride to a Venetian Villa called Villa Emo. The 60km ride included a stop at a famous tomb and the nice villa which was built in 1508. Villa Emo (www.villaemo.org ) was owned by the same family since 1508 until it was sold to a wealthy Canadian in 2004. The villa is now owned by an Italian bank. In addition, we did a small 2km climb to a very cool village called Asolo. Asolo has cobblestoned streets and it is a very popular climb with local and tourist cyclists. After making the small climb (which Kim did without walking or crying) we spent time watching all the local people sipping coffees and watching the world go by. Since it was Sunday there were plenty of cyclists on the roads everywhere. Tomorrow we are planning a few rides of differing skill level.
On the way to Villa Emo
Well I think I finally understand how to use my Garmin so you can check out today's ride including the map right here http://connect.garmin.com/activity/232507
Kim leaving Villa Emo
We visited this famous tomb but I cannot remember any other details about this....
cobblestone finish to the climb to Asolo
Locals in Asolo
Kim, Jenny David and Cary
