For the first time this trip the tent was wet in the morning from dew. We shook it off, bought fruit and yoghurt for breakfast from the general store on the main road, and ate on a rock in the sun on our way out of town.
Road
We followed the main road virtually all the way to Ceva - there was a separate route on the other side of the river at times but it was unsealed an unappealing. The road was downhill so at least it was quick with the traffic. We walked our bike through the cobbled pedestrian street down the centre of Ormeo (all the towns in the area are pretty), and stopped for espresso in Garresio.
It was pretty easy downhill cycling to Ceva, so we got up some speed. The day was probably the warmest yet, but that’s the plains of Italy for you. In Ceva everything was closed for lunch, but we weren’t so hungry because of the heat anyway. We followed a main road out towards Mondovi’, but it was very busy despite the nearby autostrada so we turned off through Vicoforte instead.
The area was now all flat, except the old town of Monrovia’ was high up on a hill. It was all decorated with bunting - it seemed like many of the towns and villages in the region had had markets and festivals over the weekend. We stopped on the old square for gelato, before descending to the newer part of town and continuing on to Cuneo.
Monrovia’
This was the toughest day of cycling mentally, at least for me. Flat can be pretty boring - especially when it’s almost flat. You ride uphill into every town or village, but otherwise you don’t feel like you are working hard enough to be so tired, and you don’t get the satisfaction of a real climb with a view. It was hot, and the day before had been hard, we were riding on busier roads, and I was ready to get out of this dusty plain.
Clouds above corn field
But then the clouds rolled in from the mountains and cooled everything down. There were even a few spatters of rain. We followed some smaller roads through cornfields which were being harvested, and came to Cuneo via the town of Margarita (which had a wonderful church - it’s amazing how magnificent all the churches are in even the smallest of towns).
The outskirts of Cuneo were a bit tricky to get through, with an unsealed track to get across the rail line. We made it to the main square, which was of grand proportions. The city was laid in a grid, with a wide shopping avenue reminiscent of Paris. We followed the avenue all the way out of the city to the other side where camping was, stopping at an ‘Ins’ mercado to shop for dinner (it’s a lot like Lidl, so not our best meal).
Cuneo
The camping was large and had a pool, so we had a swim to cool off. Rodney had procured a bottle of Spumanti to have with his dinner so was reliving his college days.