Saturday night in Carriosio was busy! There were many people at dinner – maybe the Giro Rosa that we passed also contributed to the crowd. Our room was in the top floor and we slept a bit restless in the heat until about 2am when the room cooled down (I got up and tried to move air in/out using a towel).
Despite or because of the hot night, we set the alarm early to get out around 9.00 to do the first climb in the cooler morning air. We definitely appreciated the early start in the short climb, but realized that to really ride in nice, cool conditions, we would have to get up a lot earlier.
After the climb, we descended down into Busalla, where we stopped to buy peaches and cherries as a snack for later and the rest days ahead. From there, it was a very gradual climb (300m over 29km / 1000ft over 18 miles) to the highest point of the day, from where we could just roll down to the Mediterranean.
In the descent, we rolled into a really nicely located trattoria at a small waterfall, but it was Sunday lunch and too nice of a location, or we looked too sweaty and gross, and they informed us that they were fully booked. A bit further down, we were more successful and had a nice pasta lunch, albeit a bit heavier than usual (I had a thick cream sauce with hazel and pine nuts on my pasta and Liz had lots of bacon and ham on hers).
After we reached the sea, we rode on the coast-hugging SS1 road, which was rather uncomfortable between the many parked cars (Sunday and everyone at the beach) and the traffic. But it was flat and we made it soon to our hotel at the sea. It is rather oddly situated with the large Fincantieri wharf located between it and the town of Riva Trigoso. A bit disappointed about the location at first, we soon embraced the Italian beach life, renting chaise-lounges and an umbrella every day and having panini for lunch. In the evening, we would walk around the wharf to town to eat at the cute restaurants that mostly cater to locals. On our first night, we took the menu in the Trattoria Tirreno, which was delicious and came with half a liter of wine from a what looked to be a 10l bottle, and would only set us back 20€ for both, so we had ample ice cream budget to spend in the Cremeria Delle Gardenie. So we spent 4€ for the most amazing stracciatella and pistacchio gelati and wondered why there are not more Italian gelaterias in Zurich (where, no doubt, the prices would be triple).
Total distance/elevation to date: 3378km/25’114m
Rest days: 10
Route and Stats
Relive Video
The 1948 Tour 
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