What an Entrance!!!

Viva Italia!! We started our ascent out of France as we looked ahead to some killer switchbacks unlike we have seen on our journey. They snaked uphill into the Italian Alps about 800m and we counted about 4 to 5 minutes as we observed the one truck reach the summit of the hill. Whoa... so we started the climb in granny gear as we took our time. Kevin is much better at climbing hills as he weighs about 65 lbs less than me (25 kilos for our Euro readers), but I kept up with him the whole way. He was taking pictures from time to time... hehe.

The last 10m to the top... PACCCHHIIINNGG!!! oh shit! My chain goes flying off my bike. Luckily I had purchased a new cog and chain before I left Canada... phew. So I learned to ensure my gears were working properly before I hit anymore hills especially the Alps... yikes. We stopped at the Italian border for a birra and lunch before we hit the killer downhill. At the border town we saw a 5kg jar of Nutella... one of Italia's best known junk food products larger than life in front of us, haha.

We continued on to Sestriere (2035m or 6,676ft) above sea level where the Alpine events are for the next Olympics in Torino 2006. We climbed another 600m up putting our total elevation to 1400m for the day. We figured out that we climbed about 14 Hamilton escarpments in one day... whoa, our poor quads. It was damn cold as there was still much snow on the mountain, the temperature was sitting at 5° and was dropping fast as night fall was quickly approaching. We couldn't find cheap accomodations or camping which was out of the question. We headed down to a small village called Frais to camp which was about 15 Km away. We covered that in about 15/20 minutes on the bike as we descended at blurring speeds of 80kms/hr, what a ride. We wiped the tears from our eyes as the temperature went up about 10°, phew!

The next part of the ride was a breeze, we descended down to Pinerolo for about 40 kms and then onward to meet up with a great organization in Bra Italy. An organization that is changing the world starting from our bellies, "Slow Food" is an international association that promotes food and wine culture, but also defends food and agricultural biodiversity worldwide. This is very important as corporations and GMO production (called OGM in Europe) is threatening our food security for guess what... yup PROFIT. There site can be found at www.slowfood.com check it out, they are doing some extraordinary . We met up with two gracious members from Slow Food who took us out for lunch at The University of the Science of Gastronomy. The University was also initiated by the Slow food movement and is a very unique setting for the institution. We had some amazing food and we had a tour of the facility. The Slow Food initiative is one very close to our hearts and our objective of this trip.

After the visit with Slow food we were set up with some future contacts in Italy. We were literally stunned with Italy and the Agriturismo promotion that was recommended to us by Slow Food. There is a collection of farms here in Italy that offer education about food production and argriculture. We stayed at 3 agriturismo farms meeting some truly gracious hosts that will not be forgotten. We also met another local bee farmer and were taken in for a couple of days with their family as well. We met a gentleman outside of Vincenza who also took us in for the night. We have been blessed with some gracious hosts here in Italy. It has been wonderful as the Italian hospitality has been truly outstanding. It brings a tear to my eye thinking about our travels across this country.

The bike culture is alive and well here in Italia as we have been passing through the cities and countryside. The one day we caught up to a pack of cyclist that passed us by thinking they could leave us in their dust... haha whatever! Kevin and I could tell they were the weekend warrior variety and quickly crept up into their slipstream. Kevin was playing the harmonica as they struggled to lose us... too funny. We rode out about 10kms hitting about 35km/hr while Kevin was playing the harp. They didn't know how fit we are regardless of how much wieght we were carrying, I was cracking up as we were enjoying their slipstream. They finally turned another direction. We have been loving Italy for all the great cycling and food culture as well as activism here.

All they have to do is work on their goverment and get their troops out of Iraq. Everyone we have met has been strongly opposed to the Oil war and Italy's role... sigh, stupid governments...

Otherwise Viva Italia!!!

Steve