Going to Vagli Sotto

The campsite on lake grammolazo was really nice. Simple facilities and a diving platform for swimming in a lake that seemed to have lots of fish in it. We did quite a bit of swimming but Noah was not able to entice his two young Italian friends in. Italians seem to think that pools are for swimming. The older kid said something about whirlpools sucking you under. Maybe there was something lost in translation.

Large fish in lago grammolazo

 

The restaurant at the campsite was pretty good too. We had mixed bruschetta for starters, some homemade tortellini and then shared a tagliata di manza (rare steak with some herbs) which was really nice. House wines, though, are a bit poor in comparison to the ones in France.

Tagliata di Manza

 

We cycled up and over a pass from grammolazo to Vagli. It looked short on the map but it was pretty tough! The hairpins should have been the giveaway. Anyway, it was a beautiful ride

Looking back towards Grammolazo valley

Navigation by smartphone

After a brakepad-shredding descent, worrying about Italian drivers coming around blind corners on the wrong side (actually Italians drive much better around cyclists that Tasmanians!), we arrived in Vagli Sotto and found one of the little restaurants recommended by the owner of the house that we are renting here. These kinds of places are so great. They serve simple, unpretentious food and it's cheap. We had pasta with ragu (Noah), pesto (Bri), walnut sauce ( Stan) followed by spiedini (skewers of meat and peppers) with fried potatoes and a salad. 1 bottle of house white and a mineral water and espressos. The damage? 9 euros each. What would that get you in a Tasmanian restaurant?

After lunch we found our house in the old centre of Vagli, guided by Catia's ( the house owner) father who was somewhat inebriated so soon after his own lunch!

Wow, Vagli is stunning. And our house is beautiful. More on that coming.......

 

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Day 2 - Fivizzano to Gramollazo

After breaking our sneaky camp, we climbed in the cool of the morning. It was a beautiful, long but constant gradient climb with just stunning scenery

Terenzano with mt la nuda (1894m) and tondo (1781m) behind

 

Radiant wife

 

 

After earning it, we had a great descent in the golden early morning sun down to Casola. There, we had cappucini and some pastries for breakfast then headed out on the road through Minucciano towards Grammolazo.

Along the way we came across more beautiful villages.....

Beautiful gardens in the back streets of Argigliano

Finally, we made the almost top of the climb at Minucciano and enjoyed a cold lemon soda (standard size is 200ml, maybe that's why Italians aren't fat?)

Lemon soda view

The tower in Minucciano

A bit more of a slog uphill and the we flew down all to way to grammolazo which is set on a lake and found a campsite (official!) with showers, wifi, a restaurant and a beautiful lake to swim in!

After checking in there and pitching the tent we went to the trattoria across the road and had their 10 euro menu - pasta with ragu or pomodoro, then prosciutto with melon or mixed grill (pork sausage, pork and steak) and potatoes, salad and chickpeas

Secondi at trattoria vanni morena

 

 

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Getting started - the Lunigiana

Early on Thursday morning (6ish), which was easy thanks to the wonders of jet lag, we snuck out of Derek's apartment and cycled to Milano centrale station and hopped on a train to Villafranca in Lunigiana. This is pretty much south of Parma towards the coast and in Tuscany.

Testaroli al pesto

It was another stinking hot day and after buying supermarket provisions we had a worker's lunch at restaurant Al Pozzo (which consisted of 2 pasta courses before the main course, but we skipped one of the pasta dishes)

Bri had these interesting pasta which were actually pieces of pancake. Very ancient and typical of Lunigiana apparently. Shortly, after this, a bit sozzled, we cycled off up the hills towards Fivizzano via some amazingly beautiful countryside and villages like Castiglione, Gabbiana, Magliano and Agnino.

 

Looking to castiglione

This was, seriously, the most beautiful countryside I've been in. And we kept stumbling across amazing villages and drifting through air scented with the smell of wild flowers. The only downside, and it mainly affected the non-perspiring Briony, was that it was bloody hot! By mid afternoon, though, a thunderstorm erupted and we got drenched - it was lovely and warm and refreshing

By dinner time, we hungrily climbed the switchbacks leading up to Fivizzano where we had a beer at a small bar then had our picnic dinner, consisting of bread, salami, casciato cheese and white anchovies, in the park next to the bar.

Next, we had to find a sneaky campsite, so by about 8pm we started cycling again up the climb on the road to Garfagnana looking for a hidden flat spot. Hidden because, we'd heard that Italians don't like wild campers. About 2km up the road, we spied a little field that was on a side road and hidden from all houses and the roads so we set up there and had a beautiful cool sleep with just the screen set up on the tent

Waking up at the secret spot

 

 

 

 

 

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Leaving hot Milano

After such a long flight, everything went smoothly! We got our bikes, intact, from the oversized luggage collection point and trolleyed them to the train statin to catch a train to Milano Porta Garibaldi station

Fantastically, Derek Culp, our warmshowers host, lives just opposite from this station so we didn't have to lug our bikes, still in their fantastic Ground Effect tardis bags, very far. It was very hot - about 35oC!

We assembled our bikes in the little courtyard downstairs in Derek's apartment building and. Then brought them upstairs for safekeeping.

All we could bring ourselves to do afterwards was to go for a walk to find a SIM card for my phone, some maps and a bite to eat in a small, daggy cafe. The food was good though - Bri had a barley and tuna salad

And Noah and I had panini with pancetta inside, plus a couple of nice cool chinotti!

 

 

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Culatello

We're not in Italy yet, but have just taken our culatello out of the salt cure, wrapped them in bung

 

and tied them up to be hung to dry. In Italy, we'll be able to see what the finished product tastes like. Culatello di Zibello is from Emilia Romagna and is considered the king of salumi.

 

 

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tune in

On tuesday 10th of June, we're flying to Milan, with our touring bicycles, for 5 weeks of cycling and food bliss.

After a day in Milan we will catch a train to Parma, eat a chicken parmi (not), then cycle south to the Garfagnana in northern Tuscany. We'll work our way back up through Emilia Romagna, maybe up to Trento to the Valsugana then to Piedmont.

Along the way, we'll be eating well and we'll keep you informed of that! If you subscribe by e-mail (on the right there), you'll get a message whenever we make a post.

Ciao!