Saturday 13th of August

Morning - up late and then reading book and blogging sat outside in the sunshine. Lunch as usual but with an aperitivo of Prosecco supplied by next door who were having 6 guests around for a BBQ.

Lots of news today about the reduction in the number of regions in Italy - supposedly for austerity measures. It's interesting to see the government on tv for an hour or more discussing the situation and the decision about this and the recently accepted austerity measures. Not sure I could see Cameron and crowd sat there for an hour or so answering journalists questions in the same manner and it being shown live on tv.

After the penne con ragu had settled I headed out for a ride as suggested by Georgio and Anita. I did notice the Castelli outlet store in the next village so will have to go back there for a look around and see if there's any bike clothing I can get cheap. I continued up the hill and through the gallerie (tunnels). I should really have had a light on but they were fairly wide and traffic was light so I got a move on through them.

The bridge after which I turned back on myself and started on the hills

Soon after crossing the bridge I turned right and was immediately hit by a steep slope which carried on for ages. Often the view was hidden behind the trees but when it appeared it was mostly worth seeing. One village (Faller?) looked like it was getting ready for the village festival which seems to be happening quite a lot around here at the moment.

Seren is towards the back of the valley

Lots of options around these villages including a 100km mega ride 

The downhill was great with some nice hairpins after long stretches of straight road. I will have to try it the other way around and see what mapmyride grades the slope as but it wouldn't surprise me if it said category 2 or even category 1.

After 6pm I went for a Spritz aperitivo with Chiara and friends in Feltre. They were just back from a trip to New York. The thought I'd made my first big blunder word wise but I assured them that I didn't say what they thought I said although I may have had a rather english pronunciation of the word I did use.  We headed back home after that and dropped the car off before walking to the next village to watch the Calcio (football).

View down the valley as we set off to watch the football

Seren v Rasai - Rasai won 3 - 0 :(

Calcio amongst the mountains 

The tofosi were out in force

It was a local derby match and Chiara's brother was playing in it.  There were quite a few people watching and even more people were inside the tent eating and drinking.

We hadn't eaten dinner because Chiara knew the food would be available there.  I opted for the local speciality a Patino - basically a burger along with beans, sauerkraut and polenta.  You can tell that we're very northern given the mix of Italian and germanic foods.  The music too once the band started was rather more germanic sounding than I was expecting, although most bands with an accordian would probably give the same impression.  I couldn't believe the wine was only €4 a bottle so I had to try it.  It came chilled and in a bottle clearly recycled as it still had the fizzy water label on it.  Still it went down easily enough, so much so that on the free breath test on the way out I failed with 0.6 something when the limit for driving here is 0.5.   Good job I was walking!

Chiara and the bottle of water, sorry, wine