We have gotten a bit ahead of schedule, so are enjoying alot of time winding through Italy. This week has been a week of exploring the Italian lakes, and it’s been really lovely.

We have cycled round Lago Maggiore, Lago Di Lugano, Lago Como and Lago Iseo. We have found amazing cycle paths and roads hugging the shorelines of the lakes, and travelled across Lago Maggiore and Lago Como via ferry. The lakes are pretty, but the surrounding mountains are epic.

This week we have also had some more lovely warm showers hosts! We stayed with Sandro, who met us for the last 10km of our ride and showed us Lago Maggiore at night. We also stayed with Angelo and Mistica, who made us delicious homemade gnocchi and showed us their village. Angelo also cycled with us for a while to show us the shortcuts and best roads in the valley! And we spent one really lovely night with Marieke, her family and their chikens, guinea pigs, cats and rabbit! We are really enjoying Italian hospitality!

We left Italy for Switzerland for the night, and enjoyed some Swiss hills as well as being hosted by Urs and Theres, who are warmshowers pros and entertained us with many stories of crazy cyclists they had hosted and tales from their tours. We are loving meeting so many cycle tourers, and the food we have been treated to has been incredible!

There have been some great cols this week, and some big climbs, although we did climb up to 1200m to find another closed campsite so had to drop back down to 300m again! I’m finding the climbing easier though, so must be getting used to the weight.

The weather has been ok, some drizzle but mainly warm and sunny, with a daily thunderstorm to tell us it’s 3pm.

By Lago Como we were accosted by a group of Italian cyclists on their Saturday club ride, and taken to meet their friend who had just opened a bike shop in Bellagio. It was great fun to chat to them, and they were very impressed with our trip, although they didn’t believe us at first when we said we were going to China!

We are camped out by Lago Iseo now, and are having the first rest day we have had for ages tomorrow, because wednesday is Giro day!

Jade

Jim’s words – Switzerland, Lakes, Hail, Kitesurf, Aprica, Cross and bartape.