Friday, June 27: Asti (60k)
Jeff slept in today, so no GPS map/graph. Carolyn decided to ride with Noreen. We biked through small villages and in Callianetto, stopped to 'talk' with a man who asked about our bikes. He was eager to show off his heavy, German bike which he bought in 1955 and is still riding. I talked to him in German, gave him the Experience Plus cap and took his picture in front of the church.
At that point, we biked another 10 km or so, but we missed the arrow back toward Asti and ended up biking almost to Viale, the turnaround point (according to the route Claudio had mapped out). When we realized we'd gone so far, we decided to turn back, but saw no return arrows, which surprised us. We'd stopped at a bar in Cortanze for some sorbet around noon, and got back to that bar around 1pm. This time we stopped for water and asked the woman to confirm that we were heading in the right direction. She said we were, so we kept going, hoping to see arrows or at least signs for Meridiana, the next town on our maps. We finally did find Meridiana, and stopped for panini. Noreen twisted her ankle walking back to our bikes, but thought she could ride on it, so we started out for Asti again, on a busy road, still with no arrows. I was riding with the map in my hand, but we missed whatever turn was marked to get back onto a quieter road and back into town. Thank goodness Claudio had given us the map of Asti to find the pool. As we arrived in Asti, we found Corso Torino, and found the pool by about 2:30. We swam for a little more than an hour; Noreen bought a popsicle and used it to ice her ankle. Then we made our way back to the hotel, and saw our first arrow in the final kilometer. We were steamed, and talked to both Claudio and Massimo about it.
Dinner was on our own, so Jeff and I joined Melanie and Noreen for some shopping before a dinner of pizzas and salad tricolore with a nice Ruche, followed by glasses of port.