UThis was one of those days when everything falls into place... We coasted down the mountain road on the old mountain bikes from the cabin into the idyllic old village, Vigolo Vattaro. Swooped past a supermarket with fresh berries, peaches, arrays of cured meats and cheeses, and got heavenly things for breakfast and lunch. Ate our breakfast in a tiny vege garden in a ravine above the village overlooking a little weir. With flowering hollyhocks. Then along a little trail through beech forest past Castelo Vigolo and visited the beautiful little church Madonna des Feles with an outdoor chapel in a grassy grove. We coasted on down through narrow cobbled streets, window boxes filled with cascades of flowers. Biking from a mountain to a lake is so easy but as we hit a steeper downhill stretch the bikes started to show their foibles; both brakes clenched on full hardly slowed the speed but teased out a chorus of screeching in four parts (one for each wheel) so we were careering down to variations of wee ooo bip a bip a waaay ou waaaay ou aaark aaaaark....
We recovered after a swim in the lake and long laze under a tree til late afternoon then had to slog all the way back up. My bike was about a six year old size with a seat on a cruel angle but at least the gears worked. Murray's gears were minimal but then the back wheel nearly seized up completely. This would have assisted the braking if it had happened on the downhill but made pushing the bike uphill quite hard work for him. It took an hour and a half to walk the bikes back up to the cabin, but at least we could hang the supplies off the handle bars.
Chapel outdoors with dappled sunlight
Fountain falls into a hollowed out bowl in the marble slab. The Christ figure is lovely and pale in the shade.
Overlooking the lake behind a rambling rose
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