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Day 1 and the Real Day 1: The Journey Begins

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It seems like a million years ago that Josh and I started talking to Andy Levine, of DuVine Adventures, in hopes of planning a bike tour together.  To be honest, it wasn’t really a bike tour I was imagining.  My relationship with bikes has always been a bit distant.  I have always owned a bike, but it has never been the source of exercise I have turned to.  It wasn’t until we were fully signed on to coordinating a trip with DuVine, that I realized this wasn’t just an eating and drinking tour, but it involved 15-30 miles of biking a day.  The best part of the biking part is the guilt for the eating and drinking will be so much less.  

Josh and I both prepared for the trip by biking 2-3 times a week and ending our ride up the steep hill of West Street in Needham.  Every time I did the hill I could picture biking up the 7-kilometer hill to the village of La Morra.  We will be doing just that in a few days.

 

Sunday, Day 1

I always arrive at the airport with plenty of time to overcome any glitches and to be sure I have time to enjoy at least one cocktail because I enjoy flying almost as much as I enjoy having a root canal at the dentist.  We had about 2 hours to kill at Logan and I managed to enjoy two very strong bloody mary’s.  Our first flight only took us as far as New York City, but with a 5-hour layover we managed to get lunch in Manhattan at a great place called August.

 

Once we arrived at JFK, we were excited to see 3 of our travel mates getting to know each other at the gate.  Two flights and a lot of wine later, we arrived in Milan hoping that the 6 hours of sleep some of us got on the plane would be enough to get us through our day. 

Monday, the real Day 1

Our fearless leader Tom, whom Josh and I have been skyping with for the last 8 months pulling all of the logistics together, greeted us at the airport.  We piled into the van and we were happy to see there were at least 8 seats in case some of the biking becomes too difficult.  I think my motto for the week is going to be “There is no shame in the van!”

Boomer, Josh and I ventured out to lunch at Sala Delle Mura in Aqui Terme with our guide Guido.  Of course a quick bite turned into a 3-course meal of carne cruda, sformato, tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms and agnello.  All of that topped off with an amazing 2006 Barbera d’Alba from Matteo Correggia.  When we arrived back at to the hotel, the rest of the group had finally arrived and much to our surprise they were in their…bike clothes!!  We couldn’t miss the first ride so we raced to our rooms to ready ourselves to experience our first ride after completely gorging ourselves.

The guidebook doesn’t even come close to explaining how incredible it is to ride through vineyards, farms and quaint towns with the smell of celery and fresh herbs streaming through the air.  It is a bit distracting to have such a magnificent view while you are trying to focus on not bumping into the biker ahead of you or the potholes beneath you.  Full satisfaction was ours when we completed our 13.8-mile ride and returned to warm towels and grapes back at the hotel.

Our guide David said to ready ourselves for a dinner tonight we won’t ever forget.  Lucky for us we worked off our lunch just in time.

 

READ MORE: Day 1 | Dinner Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7