Day 26; Bicycle Heaven...and not so heaven...

We woke up to a beautiful and fairly sunny day. warm..but not too hot...and with a nice breeze....perfect bicycling weather.  There is a levee just beyond our B and B that goes for over 100 miles with many different tracks you can follow.  And just as good, there is a $10 per weekend bicycle rental place about 60 feet from our front door.  The same guy was working this year that Jim and I rented from last year.  Thankfully, he had his shirt on this time.  We had fun trying to communicate in his broken English, Peggy's Italian 101 and my amazing ability to just smile...found out his dad lived in Las vegas...right where my folks live...that was a hoot...Our trail is fairly well marked...

Our first stop, recommended by Miriam (nonna) was the Laghi Verdi...a small lakeside restaurant where you could actually go fishing.  They were famous for Pesce Gatto (which is Cat Fish)

This was some different kind of place...first because every dish that Peggy had in her "Touriste Menu" for lunch included, guess what...catfish...

For those of you who are fishermen..you'll notice 2 things...first, the catfish pieces are deep fried, and located on the back of this plate.  Second, in the foreground, a few little boys that Peggy thought were the best tasting french fries ever...no guilt...just little chunks of protein.  I (eye) on the other hand..didn't have more than 1...instead, since we were in Culatello land I ordered...yep...

But the really great story was the 2 men sitting next to us...they were both about 70...and one of them spoke a bit of French...the same way Peggy speaks Italian (or any language)... with his hands:

What cracked us up, was when the other man asked for cheese to go on his pasta with catfish.  The waitress said you don't ever have cheese with fish...and he said...this isn't fish...it's cat...he laughed, Peggy cracked up, and all you fans of Chopped Chef will now have something to tell that snob of a judge:)))...The story with the two of these men didn't end that afternoon.  It turns out that the guy who didn't speak anything but Italian said that if we liked Culatello, there is an even more famous, less available Spalla Crudo...which is not the leg of the pig, but the shoulder of the pig, also dried in special caves and amazing(Jim you gotta get some).  He invited us to meet him and his cousin Luigi for lunch tomorrow, Monday, at his local salumeria (salami etc type place that also serves lunch...which we did, but that's tomorrow's amazing encounter).  For this day, before getting back on our bicycles, we chose to read and rest by the little lake;

We took off heading away from our B and B on our bicycles, thinking we could do 4 hours "in the saddle".  We were wrong.  Just as we were at the furthest possible point on the trail...Peg and I look at each other and said...OOOOOOUUUUUUCCCCCCHHHHHH!  While the seats were a thousand times more comfortable than last year, we still needed to rest our aching (ryhmes with mutts).  So we found a big road, with lots of fast cars and got back as quickly, although not as safely, as we could.  It turns out we rode over 27 miles and knew it...Thankfully dinner included Culatello:))) And something we forgot to order last night...Torta Frita!!!

Pasta in sauce, pastas in soup (wow)

and to soothe our aching (ryhmes with cuts)...some of Luca's homemade Verdino...from herbs in his garden...

It was a well earned, and much needed night of sleep....Happy 408 and 1 day!!!