Madonna di Campiglio to Riva del Garda, Italy Day 8-9

September 22 and 23, 2024

Happy 35th Birthday to Max!!

Day 5 of our biking trip brought us to Carisolo to Stenico and to Sarche. I biked the beautiful 20 miles of the morning ride and after our group lunch, I opted out because of the steep inclines with switchbacks ahead, mostly on roads, not bike paths. Pogo and Derrick loved it but Deidre, not so much. They decided to do the independent ride back to the hotel and by the time I thought I should go with them, they had already left so I went to the hotel Du Lac et Du Park in Riva del Garda with the rest of the group. Everybody’s rooms were ready but for 3 of us who had to wait in the lobby for an hour. We didn’t get our luggage for another 1h 30 minutes.

We met in the bar at 5:30pm and Clayton and Lara joined us. They had been in Italy for the last 10 days and decided to drive north to spend the evening with us. We had arranged for them to come on a night that dinner wasn’t included with VBT. After our drinks, we took a taxi to the funicular and had dinner at Bastione, recommended by Matteo. We all had pasta with a gorgeous view of the city and the lake. We went back at our hotel for cappuccinos and said our goodbyes. It was a short but very sweet visit.

The next morning, we made the decision to skip the last day of biking since the afternoon ride was going it to be the same ride as the extra one Pogo, Derrick and Deidre had taken the day before. The weather forecast wasn’t looking too good as well. We still went to the morning meeting, had breakfast then rented a car and drove an hour away to Verona. The traffic going up the mountain was bumper to bumper for about 20 minutes but thankfully cleared up. We walked around the old part of town, went to see the balcony and the statue of Juliet, from the Romeo and Juliet fame then had a delicious lunch at an outdoor cafe, best carbonara pasta ever! and finished just as the rain started. It rained the whole way back to our hotel. We drove around the lake and I wished it had been a clear day because it was so beautiful.

We went back to the room in time for Pogo’s nap while I wrote my blog. We got ready for our 7pm last VBT dinner. We had a good time chatting with our fellow bikers and getting to know them a little bit more. We started packing our suitcases for an early morning tomorrow.