Day 17: Canazei to Ponte di Legno

Day 17 · Ponte di Legno

It was a little drizzly as I made my exit from Canazei today, but not so bad and it was cool to see the mountains poking up over the misty clouds.

My ride started with the Costalunga Pass, which was shrouded in mist so I can’t really tell you too much about it. There was a lovely alpine lake up there with nowhere to stop near it, but I did get it on video. Speaking of – there will be no videos today as the hotel WiFi is so insecure none of my devices will connect to it without huge warnings. This will also be a brief one since I’m limited to my phone keyboard.

After the pass I headed into Bolzano, a full modern city. My notes today suggested stopping there for lunch and to see a frozen man (Frostillicus?) but as always – cities on the bike stress me out so I just rolled through.

After that I headed back into the apple-filled hills around Merano as I made my way back west. I’m over my halfway point, so I’m headed back through a few familiar places – and about half of today’s ride was a repeat of day 8, but going the other way. I also redid the Tonale Pass as I headed down into Ponte di Legno, which sits at the foot of the Gavia Pass (or, the Butt Clenching Pass as you may recall).

After getting to town I had coffee and a snack in town (it was late for lunch) and then finished book #7 before another wander around this small place. There’s not a lot happening in this little ski town – it’s very pretty and clean and new, but also dead this time of year.

For dinner I headed to one of few open restaurants and stupidly ordered what the waiter suggested (local style gnocchi and potatoes), despite knowing I would not enjoy a full dish of it and it also would not make me feel good. It was good for the first 6 bites, but after that it was just heavy and lacking in protein and fiber and vegetables. But it’s a huge serving so I choked down the rest of it. Like everywhere else around here, Italian menus are not designed to be explored solo so every meal is lacking in something because I cannot eat (nor afford) three plates of food every night.

Might be obvious, but I’m hitting a bit of a travel slump today, and feeling tired of eating rich food and being on the move and being alone. Anyway. More tomorrow.