First day in Italy

The day began leaving the very nice little hotel in Claviere, sort of a Swiss village in the Mountains.

An outside look at the hotel

Inside with their motto "Home and Love" which they lived up to.

View from my room.

First thing, right away was my least favorite and biggest fear on a bicycle; a steep descent on a busy road traversing through several tunnels!!!!

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I survived and then had my last big climb up through several ski areas to the trendy ski resort of Sestriere which claimed be the highest town in Italy.

After a nice bowl of pasta for lunch at the top, I began what was my final farewell to the Alps with about a 20 mile long descent.

Sometimes shrouded in clouds there was a slight shower at one point. I had made the big climb this morning so that I could come down from the mountains on a much less busy road into the smaller town of Pinerolo rather than into the big city of Torino which no one had anything good to say about. And I have learned that on a bicycle going into and out of cities is not good.

Pinerolo was a nice little town and grateful to be in Italy I stopped at the busiest spot on town; a place serving coffee and gelato. I met a group of 4 local cyclists and got some good route advice and had some laughs.

I rode a bit south toward Cuno with some great views of the Alps I had just left as the sun was setting.

I found a nice little hotel in the cute little town of Saluzzo for the night.