Yes, strongly mosquitoes season here and it's a bumper crop! After we arrived at the campsite the night before, the mosquitoes were unbearable. So we headed to the beach bar which was very bareable and then back to the campsite and a really good beach side dinner served by a very friendly waitstaff. Crys had an amazing mixed fish plate including squid which was super! The panicotta was excellent as was the tiramisu that we split.
Back at the campsite things had not improved. In fact, things were deteriorating quickly. It seemed there was some kind of kid rave that sounded like Barney was orchestrating until 11pm. Relief when it finally shut down and then horror when the adult rave started up and went until 3.30 am. The ear plugs helped but it was still a rough night, with the insane itching of the mosquitoes only adding insult to injury.
The next morning we were fast to get out as there was no interest hanging around given the bug problem. We had a good breakfast in town and finally headed out happy to be away. As nice as the beach was, bibione is not the scene for us!
Some nice riding through the country but we were starting to feel the pull of the mountains. We had a really solid.plan, catch the 4 pm train that the Italy rail app said was on plan even though June 2nd was Italys republic day. We had a really nice pizza lunch, of course espresso after for everyone like usually, and we were at the park by 1.30 where our plan was for everyone to relax while I went and got tickets for the train. Unfortunately the plan was soon smashed when I got to the train station and.next to our train it said 'cancello'. (Really, that's what it said, but I don't think it's a real word in Italian!). I went to the ticket window and the lady looked at me like I was wearing a tutu and doing the nutcracker when I asked if there was a train to Tarvisio. Then she explained that of course that one train was canceled, it a national holiday. 'Is there another way to get to travisio?'. Much sighing and key stabbing later she said yes, but we had.to take 2 trains. Solid! We had to go 2 stations down then switch to another train that would leave at 6 pm and we would get in at 8 pm. Better late than never! The app said we only had 10 minutes to change trains, but Andrew pointed out that may we could take an earlier train to the way station and a quick searched showed we could easily arrive much earlier! So we hopped the next train and hung out for several hours in Monfalcone waiting and waiting in the waiting space. Finally the hour came and we lined up on the platform with 10 other bikers all headed to Travisio! Luckily the Italian regional trains are set up for many bikes and we all found spots. At each station more bikers piled in until we were overflowing but room was always found as it seemed many people had been displaced by the cancello of the earlier train!
As the train climbed, we all got really excited as we saw the mountains grow and the scenery got more and more beautiful! Finally we arrived and about 50 bikers poured out of the train, some on tours with companies, some on long trips of their own like us, and yet.others on a day trip from Austria who loaded up their bikes on their autos.
The ride to the hotel was breath taking! A dedicated cycle path along an old railroad across a huge river gorge on a bridge. The hotel was very nice and dinner was very late but spaghetti carbonara hit the spot. Late night to sleep, and some very itchy bug bites as a reminder of why this night was so much better than last night!