Italy

Day 5 - 69/416 km. Torino - Villa 'd Adda.
We had a pretty ride to Caverno or so, where we had coffe, then toured through Bellagio - no wonder they named a casino after it! - to lunch in Vassena: a bottle of wine and some cheese by the lake... 5 km of tunnels, but the bike path from Lecco along the Adda river where we stealth camped .5 km from a cafe was really gorgeous. We took an unpowered ferry designed by Da Vinci and a swim in the evening, before tucking in under 1000 lightning bugs.

Day 6 - 95/505 km. Villa d' Adda - Azzano Mello.
Coffee and croissiants in camp in the morning, and then we followed the Da Vinci pathway and waterworks south to Trezzo to avoid some bigger cities. The path is truly amazing - half a day's ride along canals, dams, and the like designed by the master. Truly a treat. New brakes and our first flat, and then a tailwind took us from Cassano to Azzano Mello through the Greely of Italy. We camped in a cornfield, which was great. We got directions mid day from a runner who, instead of pointing, led us across town (2-3 km) at 18 km/hr! Two old codgers along the river rode and chatted with us as well. Good times.

Day 7 - 95/604 km. Azzano Mello - Bardolino.
We had a great tailwind all day heading east, and then followed the Lago di Garda coast to a neat castle out on a narrow spit. Big tourist joint. The rest of the ride for the day was jammed with RV's around Garda-Land. Garda, apparently, means Walt-Disney. We recovered from the western-style tourism by cooking pasta by the lake and enjoying a terrific bottle of the cheapest wine I could find - 1 euro. And free ice cream! Nice!

Day 8 - 78/682 km. Bardolino - Calliano?
We had another great tailwind heading north along the lake toward Torbole, where we ate and watched windsurfers. Up a hill to Nago, where we literally stumbled onto a spectacular bike path that we took for the next two days! We rode through sunny vineyards all afternoon and stopped at a trail-side bicycle bar. We passed a couple hours there avoiding rain, sharing a pint with a local and sharing biking and climbing stories. He introduced himself like so: 'Americani?' W: Yes. (Squeezing my forearm) 'Climber?' Yes! Good times. We stealth camped in a vineyard later.

Day 9 - 80/762 km. Calliano - Bozen.
Rain! We rode hard like drowned rats, completing our miles before lunch. Bozen is another big tourist joint, so we ate a lot today. I hope to repeat that tomorrow as we continue north on the bike path.

We will be heading east along the Drau in Austria in a couple of days, and expect to be in Vienna in 10 days or so. Right on schedule.
Life lessons so far:
1 - Leave the underoos at home. Seriously. Wash your shorts if you need to.
2 - Sexy tandem bike is AWESOME! Anything below a 2% uphill grade feels like a descent! Except today, because I was pooped.
3 - Wes can eat disgusting amounts of food. Yesterday: a full Blacklite pot of pasta. The big one. With sauce. And sausages. And bread. And a .5 liter beer. And half a bottle of wine. And cookies. That was dinner.
4 - Maps are not waterproof. Neither is our intended route in highliter ink. Or my pants.
5 - This is fun!