Verona

Leaving Mantua from the Casa Poli Hotel was an easy flat ride along Lago Inferiori where swans were resting on the calm lake,

  to a bike path between canals and cornfields, along the Mincio River to Peschiera on Lake Garda.  The river is tightly controlled  all along is 75 km using the water flow to generate electricity as well as for irrigation.  It was very hot again, but a beautiful ride.  The wild flowers along the side of the road and amid the grains in the fields are beautiful–lots of Queen Anne’s lace and poppies.

We stopped at the little town of Borghetto for a coffee.  The 14th century Ponte Visconteo sits atop a dam on the Mincio River.  In addition to the Ponte, the Scaliger Castle (Fortress) looms above Borghetto. The castle dates to the 10th century, but most of the current structure was constructed in the 14th century due to a catastrophic earthquake that shook most of the Veneto region in 1117.   The water mills there were used to grind wheat and other grains.  The river is glacial and beautifully clear.

Following a large group of kids on bikes out of Borghetto, we continued on this well-marked and well-travelled trail most all of the way to Peschiera.  We crossed the river on a wooden bridge with flower boxes along the rails and entered the walled city of Peschiera an area which has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age and our stopping point for lunch.  We ate along a clear canal at Rocca’s.

During lunch, we enjoyed watching this coot, mallards, a great crested grebe and some good sized fish beg for food below us.

After lunch, we strolled to a famous place for gelato, Homemade.  Clay always enjoys his gelato and the rest of us did too!  After our stop in Peschiera I continued on for the afternoon ride.  The rest of our group shuttled to the hotel.

The afternoon ride was the first one that was hilly and gave me the opportunity to use the electric part of my electric bike.  We followed Stefani on an alternate route out of town, along Lake Garda’s shore.  People (and ducks) were enjoying the beach, the clear beautiful water and the piers reaching out into the lake.  During the ride we saw kiwi vines–Italy is the second largest producer of kiwi fruit (after China, where the vine is native).  We rode up hills, through vineyards and fruit orchards, and through small towns.  It was a good ride.

For the evening we bussed into Verona and walked through the Borsa Portal (known as the South Gate) into the old city.  We enjoyed Verona in the evening and had an excellent dinner complete with Valpolicella and Amarone wine in the Piazza deal Erbe at Ristorante Maffei.