It was a big today! It was time to enter our last country- Italy! I’ve cycled 1500 miles to get to this point so I’m hoping Italy won’t disappoint! We’ve heard a couple of negative stories about cycling in Italy from a few people we’ve met along the way. There aren’t many cycle routes apparently and there is no bike option on Google Maps- what shall I do??!!

Tim and I set off from the campsite and decided to head into Lugano to check it out. Here we are getting ready to leave!

Lugano is a delightful town with some lovely plazas and buildings. We cycled through the town towards the lake. The views were awesome from there. We could see snow capped mountains in the distance. Have a look below!

The main road along the lake was narrow and very hilly. This surprised us a little. It was pretty cold so Tim kept complaining about being freezing. Luckily, somebody packed a nice warm coat to wear when things got nippy……Tim wasn’t happy.

We passed through a number of different villages once we crossed the border into Italy. There was a long tunnel but we aren’t allowed to ride bikes in them so we followed the old road round. It was quite busy so we soon formed a queue of cars behind us trying to overtake. This continued until we arrived in Menaggio. It wasn’t a pleasant ride on the main roads because there wasn’t much space for bikes. The fact that it was Saturday didn’t help us either.

Menaggio is a gorgeous place – a little touristy but enchanting. It is situated on Lake Como so as you can imagine the scenery is pretty awesome. I’m glad to have got my first ride in Italy under my belt- I think the cycling will be different to the previous countries. Check out the data from today’s ride. We climbed a lot but it didn’t feel like it- I think we were concentrating on the roads!

Dad had a tough drive in the van so he was ecstatic when we arrived at the campsite and had to park the van. The site is a little on the cramped side so Dad had to perform a little Tetris to get the van in safely. Luckily he managed it without causing any damage- top work!