{"id":16572,"date":"2018-08-13T04:20:51","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T09:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wohutravels.us\/?p=16572"},"modified":"2019-03-26T09:46:47","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T14:46:47","slug":"day-10-casale-monferrato-to-alessandria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/?p=16572","title":{"rendered":"Day 10, Casale Monferrato to Alessandria"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"it_dy10_01\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We slept in until about 8:00am enjoying the AC. Breakfasts are always a wonderful\u00a0 affair and exciting to see what our hosts have laid out for our browsing . . . always lots of cakes, fruit, juices, cheeses, yogurt, cereals\u00a0 . . .<\/p>\n

\"1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . and usually eggs made to order with ham, bacon or sausages. Great way to start the day . . . oh and of course with at least 2-3 cappuccinos!!!<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_03\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After packing up our gear for the last time, we were down the road, riding an easy 32 miles to Alessandria.<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_04\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There is a lot of soybeans and corn grown in the flat, lower areas in this part of Italy and many times as you looked to the side of the road, as you biked along, it looked a lot like Wisconsin. However, one thing you don\u2019t see on the sides of fields in Wisconsin are the elaborate little religious shrines like this one.<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_05\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As we rolled into our first village a local market was beginning to set up . . .<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_06\"<\/a><\/p>\n

emJay and Marci surveyed the fresh produce and emJay, in typical biker fashion, bought one banana!!!<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_07\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lawrence Welk lives . . . through his Italian reincarnation, Enrico Cremon!!!<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_08\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We rode along the Po river during the morning and were surprised to see all the irrigation used to grow even vegetables like these zucchinis . . .<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_09\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . .flooding the areas between the mounded growing areas.<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . .\u00a0 there were many stands of timber too, planted 20-30 years ago . . .<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_11\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . that enjoyed a nice little drink, too. The soil along the Po must be very light to demand this type of attention.<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_12\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . luckily the trails we road through the area on were high and dry!!<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_13\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gun ownership may not be as prevalent in Europe but those in the country who own guns still like to use local metal signs for \u2018sighting-in\u2019 there rifles. Just like their American cousins!!! This chap must have been using a 45 caliber or large bullet, the resulting hole being about an inch in diameter!!!<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_14\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Riding out of the River Po sand plain, we entered the village of Bozzle and found ourselves to be hungry!!! Of course being Sunday, the two restaurants were closed . . . .<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_15\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . but we soon met Mahaila, an Italian woman who owed the local B&B with her Swiss husband. Their New York overnight guests were just leaving and she agreed to make us a nice little \u2018al fresco\u2019 lunchy . . .<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_16\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . we took our seats at the outside eating area and spent time looking for the thirty turtles that roaming their yard. These two were in the turtle \u2018nursery\u2019, a wooden ring around the base of a tree. Grandma Turtle was about 15 inches long and 50 years old!!!<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_17\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . we enjoyed a wonderful filling lunch of sliced ham, sausage, fresh mozzarella with tomatoes, bread and fresh melon. Too soon it was time to say our goodbye\u2019s and we would be down the road to Alessandria.<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_18\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . oh, and we were right on course!!<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_19\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . another interesting \u2018raised\u2019 cemetery. Not sure why this type of \u2018elevated\u2019 graveyards are so popular with the Italians.<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_20\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . although most Italian’s, who live in cities, live in apartment type buildings, OLD buildings,\u00a0 these free standing apartment buildings don\u2019t seem to be too popular. Here is one that looks sort of out of place, like it never really caught on, standing out in the middle of an open field.<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_21\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . after the last climb of the trip, it was time for a little gelato and\u00a0 beverage break. Soon we were riding DOWN HILL on our last leg into Alessandria . . .YES!!! Smiles all around!!!<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_22\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We ventured out to a local restaurant where the chef came out of the kitchen and offered to make us a \u2018Chef\u2019s Special\u2019. It sounded great and soon we were treated with a DELICOOUS little green salad . . .<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_23\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . followed by a platter of garlic risotto . . .<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_24\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . .\u00a0 and three meat ravioli. The wine and water (with gas) flowed too . . .<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_25\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . but there was still room for a nice little apricot panna cota, with a dark rich chocolate sauce, and topped with nuts.<\/p>\n

\"it_dy10_26\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . . it was a great way to celebrate our last dinner group dinner in Italy.<\/p>\n

Back at the hotel there was a new group of riders being fitted to their bikes, several of the same one we used. I saw my 55cm bike being fitted to a chap from London and we had a nice chat.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, Marci and BillyB would train off to Cinque Terra for three days of hiking. emJay, Barb,Tom and I would train to Turino for a \u2018three day\u2019 wind down from our biking holiday!!!<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0 Route:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

ride review to come . . . more to come!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We slept in until about 8:00am enjoying the AC. Breakfasts are always a wonderful\u00a0 affair and exciting to see what our hosts have laid out for our browsing . . . always lots of cakes, fruit, juices, cheeses, yogurt, cereals\u00a0 . . . . . . and usually eggs made to order with ham, bacon … Continue reading Day 10, Casale Monferrato to Alessandria<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018italy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16572"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16587,"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16572\/revisions\/16587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}