All right, I was a little tired this morning. Anyway I got off about the time I planned to and after a somewhat speedy ride to Cesena I got there just in time to get a ticket and jump on the train to Castelfranco Emilia (between Bologna and Modena) as I thought I could skip a little flat cycling up toward that area and it was good to do the day after the long gran fondo race to give me a relaxing start of the day.
I found my way through the village/town rather quickly and the road soon started to get more nice when cycling toward the mountains. I passed by Vignola and where the valley road starts. I stopped at Trattoria Bartolani in Casona for a coffee and coca-cola, I think. Nice old rustic bar.
Then it was time for normal cycling, but the road only slowly climbs if at all for a long time. When you come to a turn-off with a sign saying 7 km to Sestola, it is time to climb a little. The road ahead also takes you to Sestola, but in 11 km. Just to follow the main via Trentino up to Sestola and higher up it gets really nice. You cross an unnamed pass and goes up to Sestola on the other side of the ridge. On the last part up to Sestola a young man on his Cipollini bike passed my by in a speed so I would not even attempt to try and follow him – I felt old and slow. I stopped at a café in Sestola for an ice cream and coffee again and soon noticed it started to get a bit cold and thought I better move on up the mountain as planned.
It had been sunny and quite hot earlier in the day, but now the weather had changed rapidly. I had seen some clouds upon approaching Sestola (very much a Winter resort village), but thought it would not be bad. It got dark as I climbed out of Sestola on a narrow and steep road and when reaching Pian del Falco (1368m) on this short-cut road it started to rain a little. Now I got a bit sad about the prospects for getting up to Pian Cavallaro (1860m) (& Passo del Lupo (1523m)) as I would not be able to enjoy any views up there. I continued a little above the hotel/restaurant there, but then it got really bad and I took cover inside an open big building that they were working on. Soon noticed someone was there and met a man and talked little with him, but he was on his way out so I had to stand outside waiting out the worst weather. Now it did not really stop and the temperature was down to ca. 5 degrees with some snow mixed into the rain. After a while I got down to the restaurant to get something warm. Got tea and a sausage and waited and waited in the hope the sky would open up again, but when the rain sort of faded after a long time it was now around 18:00 in the evening and it was terribly cold and obviously it had been snowing up in the mountains, so I could not really get myself to try and go up the mountain now.
I went down defeated to Sestola slowly on the wet road as it again started to a rain a bit more and still with snow mixed in, but fortunately no snow on the road. Back down in Sestola I got another coffee to warm up and asked for a hotel for the night and got some suggestions. There were like 10 hotels in Sestola, but none was open in the Summer and no one in the city knew anything about anywhere one could stay for the night in Summer nearby. Not a very touristy place in the Summer for sure.
I asked at the last place before continuing if there was a place in the direction I was going, but they did not think so. Anyway I decided to go ahead at 19:00 now. On the way I stopped for a last glance back to Sestola and where I had spent half the day and to have at least one photo for this day. As you see, the sky had of course now opened up on the mountain I had climbed up, but too late now to return there. Oh well, cannot always be lucky.
I thought there must be a place at Montecreto and found a residence place that looked like it could be a hotel and also found a bed & breakfast at the little road behind the village centre, but both where closed for all I could make out. I saw two open bars in the village and returned to the first, but it had closed when I came back there, so went to the other one and asked if they knew of any place to stay at nearby. There was a hotel quite a bit ahead, but they were not sure it was open (I think it was open and would have been a good place from seeing it in the morning).
Anyway they eventually came to think of someone having a Bed & Breakfast in the village (just before it actually). Eventually they helped me by figuring out the telephone number and calling for me. It worked out fine and I could stay there. It was not a very good place (cold and I could not lock the door when going out and they did not want to give me any breakfast and there were some problem with the shower or unclean toilet, cannot remember). Not in too good a spirit I walked back down to the bar to have a beer and a little sandwich (which was the only thing they had for eating). In the morning when I was on my way, the lady at the bed & breakfast surprised me with anyway making anice breakfast for me and I was all the more happy with the place in the end and she was kind of nice really, so all fine in the end. I think she were French actually. She told me the giro d’Italia had been going by on the road and that explained why the road was as good as it was and she hoped they go there every year ;-).