BikeTours.com clients Tim and Elaine Aye biked and blogged their way across Italy and told us all about it. Read below and follow their blog here.
August 24, 2012 Today greeted us with some much-needed sleep in the morning and then off to see what we could see and experience in the town of Alessandria. Our tour of the city started with the architecture of the Medieval Period and we saw The Church of St. Mary of the Castle and then on to the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century all the way to the Nineteenth Century. This very kind Italian woman saw that we were looking at churches and gave us an incredible history lesson as she walked us through the vias (streets) and showed us two beautiful (bella) churches, The Church of the Blessed Virgin of Monserat and The Church of the St. Alexander and St Charles. The challenge was she did not speak English well and we did not speak Italiano, but with hand gesturing and a translation book we were able to communicate reasonably well.
In Italy the shops do not open until 4:00 pm and promptly close at 6:30 PM and only the bars with drinks (vino) and appetizers are open. The restaurants do not open until 8:00 pm and we needed food so tonight we ate at a bar with appetizers and had some great conversation with lots of hand gesturing with some Italian businessmen that were sitting next to us. Everyone has been very kind and accepting of us as we are obviously American Tourists on Holiday. We learned a new term for toasting: "Chi Chi." Buena Notte!
August 24, 2012 Buongiorno! The plane ride was - well - a long plane ride, it was interesting to see how many positions I could get into while trying to sleep. I was grateful to have friendly seat mate called Tim. We were in Milan briefly, just long enough to get some much-needed sleep and then back on the train. Everyone has been very gracious and our little few words of Italiano has come in very handy at critical times. The food has been ottimo and at breakfast they even offered up gluten free options. Bueno!
Today is Saturday and we will be exploring the local sites and seeing museums in Alessandria, Italy. Our bikes arrive tomorrow and then we head towards Acqui Terme, on Sunday. Ciao!
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