Giro di Italia

This morning Kevin and I had the chance to watch the Giro di Italia! This is basically the Tour di France of Italy. It is a 22 day race and the riders go about 200km each day...it's crazy! Today was day 15 and the riders had to go into the mountains. They road rights past our town and then up the main road to Piancavallo. They then continued into the Dolomites and ended near Belluno. Kevin and I decided to get a stop in one of the switchbacks on the road up to Piancavallo. It was such a festival:) There were people everywhere, and I love Italy because I would say over half of them road up to watch the race! We hung out for about an hour before the riders got there (but they close the road early so we had to get our spot).

Some of the coolest things were seeing all the team cars with the spare bikes on top. The bikes are super nice, and cost way more than the car they are riding on, which is funny:) We had a great time, we really felt like we were taking advantage of Italy today! Here are some shots of the racers passing us. They were going about 20mph up this road...it was crazy!

Here is our spot, waiting for the racers:)




This is a shot over the side of the mountain, you can see the team cars coming up the road past our town.


This guys was awesome! As I said, most people road their bikes up to watch the race...well he didn't want to get tan lines, so this guys hiked up those spandex shorts and rocked it all day!


And finally the racers came through!

Paragliding

There is a group of Italians that go paragliding from Piancavallo. Some of our friends have joined the group and had their first big flight the other day. I did not fly, I just took the photos, but it was still a great time seeing them all launch. Kevin and I are thinking about trying it out...we'll see, we already have too many hobbies and not enough weekends! Here are some shots of the guys launching.

Family Reunion in Venice

We were lucky enough to meet up with Brian and Courtney for a day in Venice. They were on a week long tour of Italy, and sadly didn't have enough vacation time to hang out with us longer. We met up and saw the sites of Venice, and also took in Murano. After a week long trip in Italy they were happy to just hang out at a cafe and have a glass of Italian wine. I also got to introduce them to the Italian Spritz (my favorite summer cocktail).




I wish we had more time with them, they are such a fun couple...not to mention part of our family!

"Best Idea Ever"

I have a great friend here in Italy named Larissa. She is my running buddy, and a great friend I know I can talk to about anything. Well, this past Sunday we went out to dinner for her Birthday. At dinner I asked her what we should do Monday (her actual birthday) and she suggested we go on a run. That was normal, we went on a run on my birthday a few weeks ago, so I said sure, where should we go? Her answer almost made me fall off the chair. She says "well I know we've been talking about it, so I say we just do it...let's run to Piancavallo" WHAT?? First of all, WE have never talked about it! Piancavallo is a 30-45 minute drive UP the mountain, there is no way we are going to make it! But, it was her 30th birthday wish...what is a friend to do?

So, Monday morning we start out on the back road (we had intel that it was not as steep as the main road). Well, as soon as we lock the car and get going up some very steep terrain it starts to pour down rain! It is not super warm, probably in the 60s, and we are in shorts and long sleaves...we are now soaked and freezing...and the hill is so steep we can only run about 30 ft at a time. We huddle under a tree for a few minutes, and have the first of a series of discussions that could have lead to us freezing to death. We conclude that we are already wet, so we might as well push up to the church and reassess. At the church, I feel my heart might explode and it's still raining...so the only logical choice was to keep going. The road did level out a lot and we were able to push about 3 more miles uphill. At this point we were feeling really good. We decided that this was not going to be impossible afterall. But, we were not prepared to push on that day. We needed more water, and more food if we were going to get all the way to the top.

Yesterday (Thursday) we went for it again. We pushed all the way up to the antennas. For those who don't know Aviano that was 9 miles up hill, with an elevation gain of about 3,000ft. We then went down the main road (more direct, but steeper) and got back to the base 6.5 miles later. It was not fast, it was not pretty, but we finished it and it was awesome. The entire run, as things got really ugly, Larissa kept reminding me that this was the "best idea ever"...best idea ever:)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/83673803

We did not bring a camera, but here is the link from my GPS watch...we had to prove we actually did it!