Fritz Italy Tandem Bicycle Tour June/July 2016: Day 7

Riding through the vinyard in Valdobbiadene

We started from Valdobbiadene in bright sunshine. The route led us through the local vineyards before heading downhill.

Almost all the ride was on roads today, many of which were unpaved and ran along canals built to irrigate the grapes, corn, wheat and olive trees we saw on our ride.

At about halfway through the 71 km day, we headed sharply uphill which was a little diconcerting since the tour company directions said turn left and go downhill. John checked Open Street Maps and we were going the right direction so we kept climbing. The climb was short but towards the top the grade maxed out at 19%.

After descending back down, we had some flat roads before we climbed into Asolo, one of the most beautiful towns in Italy. Coincidentally, Valdobbiadene hosted Stage 14 of the 2015 Giro d'Italia and Asolo hosted Stage 11 in 2016. We saw number of local cyclists climbing on both mountains doing training rides.

After having a nice pizza lunch in Asolo, we rode aroud the small mountain top town and took some pictures before descending back down to continue our ride.

Near Montebelluna, we passed the Tempietto and Villa Barbaro, designed by Palladio. The buildings and statuary were beautiful. Unfortunately The Tempietto wasn't open to tourists, at least today. There were two fresco's on the outside that you could see, one in good condition and the other in bad shape.

We arrived in Treviso and went through on of the gates to the walled city a little after 6p. After a little sightseeing, we went to our hotel, cleaned up and went to a little brew pub for dinner.

Tomorrow will be our last day of riding, then we will spend a few days walking in Venice.

See bike route here