Bella Italia Stage 4

Alessandria to Neirone

Strava: 107 km, 1,417m, 5:11, 296 shifts

What a difference being cool makes for sleeping. Andrew scored 98 on his watch which means objectively he slept like a log for a long time. Subjectively I did too. With the Aircon blasting me all night it was almost too cold but not!

Breakfast was down the street at a bar/focacceria. Pastries and drinks and my focaccia had green olives (electrolyte supplements). Delicious.

We started riding about 9 at a relaxed pace. The track we were following was excellent, on very small farm roads mostly, with one section on just grass. We stopped in a beautiful town called Gavi, very old with a fort on the hill. We had drinks at a bar supplemented by pizza and focaccia that Wytze bought nearby. We had a look in the church, then headed on.

The weather was cloudy, looking like rain. We cruised a long way and stopped in a town after 60 km. There was a sign for an Osteria that said ‘menu €10’, so we checked it out. Looking closed from the outside, there were tons of local workers inside for lunch. It was a mostly self-serve cafeteria, pizza first, then your choice of pasta or rice and stew. I had to ask her to stop filling my bowl with pasta, enough is enough! It was great, and included drinks and dessert. Yesterday we ate at a Michelin listed restaurant, today a very of-the-people Osteria.

After lunch, a few drops of rain fell, nothing much. We continued up the narrow valley, then came to the biggest climb of the day. Over 400m in eight km. No problem but it was hot work. It’s a bit humid and we were dripping sweat.

Once on top we had only 10 km to go, rolling, mostly down. The road was one narrow lane, twisty with zero cars, nice! We turned off our route for the last four km. We got to the right village then took an amazing route up, on walking paths so steep it required my lowest gear.

We arrived at our B&B and our hostess welcomed us. We stored our bikes indoors then shared a couple of big Moretti beers on the patio. She offered to do our laundry so we quickly showered and gave her a bag with pretty disgusting contents.

We arrived early, before 4:30, so had time to relax before dinner. I even had a short nap. Dinner was risotto then tuna salad, served with bread, appetizers and local bulk red wine. Next up was apple torte, and finally she brought out her homemade limoncello and blueberry-cello, tasty. Our hostess spoke English and told us lots about food in various parts of Italy and about the town. The population is 60 and many people are 85+. Her neighbor is 105 so it must be a “blue zone”. I lasted until 9:30 but was tired from sweating all afternoon, actually from riding hard for four days straight.