Day 5: Giriamo in bici alla Monte Grappa

Today we made the ride up Mt. Grappa, which is the big mountain that looms over the area. It's 1776 meters at the summit making it a mile high mountain. The town of Borso where we are staying is at about 200 meters. The road was just beautiful with great views. Here we are climbing with about 6 miles to go the summit.

Along the side of the road we saw many different types of wildflowers. This is a close-up picture of one of our favorites. We aren't sure what kind of flower it is, buts it's lovely nonetheless.

One of the highlights of the ride was that the cows on the mountain are wearing bells. As they walk along and chew grass the jangling and clanging of the bells make it sound like the avant-garde Mt. Grappa Bovine Percussion Ensemble and we had front row seats to the performance.

Here we are at the top of the mountain. It was a long climb, probably the longest sustained climb to the highest elevation that we have ever ridden. And the descent was a sweet reward because the road was in fantastic shape. It was about 2 hours 45 minutes to get up and about 40 minutes to get down.

Of course, an even sweeter reward for all that hard work is dinner. For the most part the food at the bike camp has been delicious. This is a picture of Pete's antipasti selections from the night before.