Day 8 – July 3, 2025

So, folks, my room was on the third floor, right in center of town, with a wonderful view city center. Even though I went to bed late, I was up around 7 am, to catch a glimpse of the still-empty town, birds chirping. I know that videos take a long time to download, but you might want to watch this one.

[Trento in the morning]https://bikerbalazsmedia.blob.core.windows.net/blog/2025_innsbruck/Trento7.mp4)

OK, we are in Italy, quite far from Austria, but the breakfast was amazing at the hotel! A very friendly staff served it - and I sat outside and enjoyed the grilled veggies, delicious ham, cheese - and especially the local jam was a treat!

After breakfast, I visited to local farmer´s market and rode around a bit more in town, paying tribute to the wonderful dom.

Flowers, what else?So nice......those wall paintings!Just a random house"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"

I was a bit unsure how to continue; the flat section of the previous day was not really exciting. I visited the local tourist information, the lady first was a bit offended that I would ask something outside of her beloved city, she was responsible for Trento only. But then she warmed up and gave me some good advice. She did mention that there was an alternative route of getting to Lake Garda, but "somewhat" hilly. I spoke to a couple who were also touring Alto Adige, they told me there was a bus service to the top, from where you could roll down.

Hmmm, for those that know me would have guessed I would never have gone for the bus service. Having said that, my stomach was still quite full from breakfast, plus it was a long ride the day before and due to the laundry action, I did not have a great sleep. On the river Adige, I found a cable car that would have taken me up some 400 meters of elevation - with my bike - for just €5. It was tempting, but I chose to ride up.

The road started with a steady climb, the voice of the lady saying something about bikes not allowed was still ringing im my ears. There was no sign (at least not one I noticed), so I carried on - until a car slowed down next to me and said bikes are not allowed due to the many tunnels and galleries. I asked him if he knew an alternative, he showed an extremely steep road that I had just ridden by.

Not even 20 years ago would I have made this with all my luggage. Yes again, like close to Innsbruck, I started shoving, pushing, heaving my bike up the very, very street side road, my cleats rubbing on the asphalt. It must have been 20 minutes for half a kilometer, when finally the road levelled out - somewhat; but at least it was rideable.

It was quite a climb, honestly, I had underestimated it. The lady said something of a 600 meter altitude gain, but there were signs showing me it was more than double that, Trento is at 200 meters, the top at 1,650m - so 1,450 meters of altitude difference - and that over 20 kilometers or so. Probably there would have been a shortcut, but now that I was in the climbing mode, I just continued. I made a snail´s pace, but the views were quite amazing.

This is the direction I had ridden from the previous day. You can see River Adige and the road I was not allowed to ride on with my bikeLot of switchbacks...at the bottom left is Trento, the small settlement on the right is where I could have taken the cable car to

So I was basically in the Dolomites. At one pit stop, I saw a warning sign for bears. I quickly finished my lunch and left, before having to share it with a bear.

Attenzione!

Finally, finally, I made it to the pass, at 1,650 meters. There I talked to a bus driver, who as from Albania.

Very welcoming well!The pass is called Monte Bondone, that is what it says behind all those stickers

I started riding downhill and had a nice view of the peaks of the Dolomites. With quite some worry I saw huge clouds over the mountains and was worried they were coming my way.

Threatening clouds over the peaksThe arrow show the road, right in the shadow of a cloud

Anyhow, better than getting stuck at the top, I continued downhill. Before entering Italy, I heard there was a massive heatwave, with a motorway having to be closed due to melting asphalt. I was lucky the two prior days, it was quite warm, but nothing extraordinary and the weather up at thw summit was close to chilly. On this descent, I had the feeling I was entering a furnace - with every 100 meters of altitude loss or so, the temperature rose by 1-2 degrees. The views, however, were nice, small towns tucked at the foot of massive walls.

Nice towns......with a castle

The descent was over and now there was just 20-odd kilometers to Lake Garda. The air was thick, the clouds were grey and I had quite a strong headwind - plus the road started inclining again. For the first time on this trip, I started to question what am I doing this for. Worse, in a rather nondescript, decaying town, I stopped to replenish my supplies. It was a grocery store that would have been fit in East Germany in the 1970s or so. There I asked for some prochutto, which were sliced from a huge piece of meat. I love that when in Italy.

Soon thereafter, I stopped to have a bite - I took out the bread, the cheese and the prochutto I just purchased. There was a strange smell, it came from the meat. I threw it away in disgust - did not bother to return to the store.

So I made the final push towards the lake - and it was anything but pleasant. I was riding on this bike road that had more and more bikers, those on the e-bikes veering past me, ringing their bells. I rode by some campgounds that were at least a kilometer long, not even being at the lake. Having checked with AI, it can accommodate 800 guests and has an area of 35,000 square meters.

Camping Zoo (really, that is what it is called

I got to the town of Rive del Garda - and all I saw was traffic jam, pedestrians, huge Lidls. Aldi´s, McDonalds, you name it. The town, or at least its outskirts, were not pretty. The bike road was full of pedestrians and fellow bikers, it was a frustrating advance, especially with all the red lights.

A glimpse of Lake Garda

Finally, I reached the lake itself. Normally, I would strip and go in for a swim, but somehow, with the clouds, with the experience behind me of traffic, bad prochutto, headwind, potential rain - I was not in the mood. I checked the weather forecast for the following week and it did not look promising - there were thunderstorms predicted for all of the days ahead. Also, sleeping in a zoo with 800 others was not compelling, Another thing, going around lakes is also not my favorite thing - I prefer quaint, small towns, hills/mountains, forests, rivers.

Moreover, something I had not talked about, my father had bene calling me every day, asking me when I would return. He was in middle of a project around his home and needed some help - he did manage without me, but it would have been better to be back home.

With all these factors, I made the decision - I would not continue to Lake Garda, but rather return home.

Now was the question as how to get back. There were no trains on Lake Garda - the closest to where I was was Rovereto, some 20 kilometers away. From there, I could catch a train towards the north, to Bolzano, then Innsbruck and finally Vienna. Looking back now, I would have made more sense to go to Verona, as there are direct trains from there to Vienna, but I did not know that at the time.

So going to Rovereto. It was around 19:30 by the time I left Riva del Garda, first having to ride through town. The coast itself was nice, but there was one cramped camprgound after another - somehow I would not have felt good there. Now I found the road to Rovereto - no bikes allowed. An older guy in his Lamborghini honked at me and showed how to get there. Oh boy. It waa an extremely steep road, not something I had hoped for after all the climbing earlier that day. Steep roads ofter have curves, this one did not - it was a straight line, with a gradient of 10-12%. At the top was vineyards - and lot of small flies that flew into my face.

I reached River Adige again and Google Maps told me to cross it and continue, but there the road was closed, so I had to backtrack. You see, I was not in the best of moods. Finally, I reached Rovereto, there I had a quick stop at a McDonalds and made it to the train station. The ticket machines were not really user-friendly, I thought there would be a train to Brenner, but it was only to Bolzano that I could reach.

It was not a low-floor train - and, honestly, I wasn´t ever sure bikes were allowed on it or not (I had not even purchased a bike ticket). No conductor came to bother me at this evening hour - I believe it was 11 pm by the time I reached Bolzano. No further trains that evening, so that is where I was destined to stay. The first train to Brenner was at 6 am.

Checking hotels was a nightmare, they were, as usual, either fully booked or extremely expensive. I decided - similar to an earlier trip in Llubjlana, either to stay awake for the night or find some place to wild camps.

I rode around the city for a while and found a huge, loud concert going on in the outskirts, not far from which I sat down and bought an ice-cream. Then I checked my map for some green patches, I rode there, but that area was video-guarded. A couple of days earlier I had ridden through Bolzano and recalled some green areas along the river, so I rode a couple of kilometers there, found a nice spot and did not even bother to pitch my tent, just laid down on my mattress and slept. I was woken up by my body scratching - ah yes, next to the river are many mosquitoes, so in half-sleep I did end up pitching my tent.

Here is the link for the route of the day: Day 8 - July 3, 2025 - about 81 kilometers.