Breakfast at BnB Casa Rossa was in the living room, on a table laid for 3 people, next to the grand piano. Very nice house. The other 2 people, a young couple from a village near Modena, showed up soon after. They had good English. No prosciutto, so I had to make do with cherry jam on my rolls, but it was good cherry jam! Apparently they don’t have good internet in the village near Modena either. Even Italy doesn’t seem to have good internet in out-of-the-way places.
Then I set off for nearby Strigno, since it was the starting point for today’s planned ride to the ski resort of Cortina D’Ampezzo. Doubtless the name was the inspiration for the Ford Cortina of yesteryear. I set Zumo for Castello, to force him to use the minor road toward Agordo that featured in the map of best motorcycling roads in the Dolomites (and also, not coincidentally, in another site listing the most dangerous roads in Europe).
The road wound through some charming villages, Bieno, Pieve Tesino, Castello Tesino, then joined the SP 79 toward Ronco Chiesa, and started to climb and climb, eventually going over the 1616m Passo Brocon. As I rose, the temperature dropped, eventually to 1.5 degrees. The road was wet in parts, so I was taking it carefully. The descent was magnificent, but this was a very minor, narrow road. If something happened, the crash barrier might stop the bike, but not me.
At Ronco, I decided to forgo the next pass, on the SP347 to Agordo. It was just too cold up there for me. Above all, I hate being cold. I had 3 pairs of socks on, long cycling tights under my motorcycling pants, 4 layers under my leather jacket, but only ordinary gloves. I searched for the switch for the heated grips. No heated grips! What sort of BMW is this?
Instead, I descended to Feltre and found a cafe. The ride down, mainly along a valley, was better for motorcycling anyway, with fast bends and overtaking opportunities. I ended up booking a hotel room in Colle Santa Lucia, about 70km away, through Agordo, approached from the main SS50 road along the Piave Valley. The altitude here is 1485m, but it’s not so cold, being later in the day. It’s beautiful beyond words, with the surrounding peaks dusted in new snow. I’m in Garni Cesa Dele Angele, a biker friendly hotel. My bike is now in the garage under the hotel.
I had received a user and password for the wifi when I checked in. A bit later I discovered that the login was good for only one device. Since I had used it for the phone, I needed another one for the ipad. Back at reception, nobody there. I knocked on the door and a young girl appeared, maybe 10. She understood what I needed and produced the new login. While I was waiting I noticed one of the globes in a light fitting high on the wall flickering, then it went out. I tapped it and it came back. I tried to tell the girl there was something wrong, she went to fetch her grandmother (presumably) who did not have a word of English. I tried to demonstrate the problem by tapping the globe, and this time it went out for good. At least they know now. I probably broke it, but quartz halogen globes are not normally too vibration sensitive. A couple of hours later it was working. I guess the younger man who ran the hotel had replaced it.
Although the radiator in the room was warm, they were a bit parsimonious with the heat, and I wrapped myself in one of the doonas to stay warm while I wrote.
Looking ahead, I realised with a start last night that I have only 2 more nights before I must reach Munich to hand back the bike. I’m within a few hours of Munich, I could just stay 2 nights here, then head to Munich over the Brenner Pass and around Innsbruck. Or I could spend a short time on the bike tomorrow and spent the last night in some other beautiful place, a bit closer to Munich. It’s actually sunnier at Bolzano, on the western side of the Dolomites, but it’s supposed to be sunny on Wednesday everywhere, so I settled on Cortina again.
It’s about 4 hours from Munich, on a major road, max altitude about 1500m. I can handle that, and get to Munich in mid-afternoon on Wednesday. So I booked a room for Tuesday night in Cortina, once again in a 9+ rated hotel, for only €50.
Looking at how to get to Cortina, only 30km away, there are essentially 3 roads, all of which go over 2200m. This was fine nearly 3 weeks ago when I went over Stelvio, but out of the question in this weather, with low cloud, trying to rain. I’d be riding through cloud in below freezing temperatures on damp roads. The long way round, descending to Belluno on the SS203 (I came up on this, but every road is a different road in the other direction), along the valley on SS50 to Longarone, then the climb to Cortina on the SS51, might take 4 hours, but that’s perfect to check into the hotel at the earliest time allowed, 2pm. So I’m all set.
Only one restaurant here in Colle Santa Lucia, but the Capricciosa was very good, and they had vegetable soup too, and apple strudel. The Austrian influence again.