Tuesday, July 1: Borgomanero to Verbania (56k)
We awoke to cool temperatures and overcast skies. It was 15km to Lake Orta; we stopped in Alzo to take pictures, despite the darkening clouds, and suggested to Massimo that we could have ridden that the night before and stayed at the lake, which would have avoided the hot, 'businessman's' hotel in Borgomanero. (Of course, we would also have missed the hilarious episode when Mary and Noreen decided to block their rooms off with a settee from the landing, so that they could leave their doors open and get a cross-breeze, while singing us all to sleep. Thomas has pictures.)
Shortly after our stop in Alzo, it started to drizzle. We caught up to Claudio, who was worried that the arrows were going to be washed away if the rain picked up, and agreed to stop at a bar in Omegna. Right as we got there, it started POURING. Angie, Melanie, Noreen, Mary and Thomas decided to go to the hotel with Massimo in the van, and the rest of us planned to ride as a group, following Claudio, into Verbania. Unfortunately, right as the van left and we got ready to start again, the downpour returned -- the cars were throwing up sheets of water, and the roads were 2" deep rivers, but suddenly things cleared up. We biked out of Omegna, up a tiny twisting road through an old community -- there were two horses standing in the mist, just looking at me as I biked past. It seemed surreal. When we got to Lago Mergozzo we settled for lunch overlooking the lake. And there was one last challenging hill as we headed toward Verbania. It ended up being a very nice ride, and I'm glad we did it.
Before dinner, Jeff and I walked to the community pool with Noreen -- it was nice, with both indoor and outdoor pools, but I never ended up going to it. Noreen and I looked for a supermarket in hopes of finding Danielle's cantuccini (no luck), and bought a pair of turquoise earrings, then went back to the hotel to gather for our last group dinner, at Ristorante Isolino.