Percorso No 4 (Summer Solstice Revisited)

In honor of our first day with no rain (as in ZERO), here's a revisit of the route we rode on June 21st, the first day of summer, from Bellagio, across Lake Como by ferry (gotta love a ferry ride as a part of a road ride) to Varenna, up and over the hill to Lecco and back to Onno and the backside of Madonna del Ghisallo from Asso.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/259310

There were two serious climbs--right from Varenna to the top of the hill--several kms, not sure of distance, gradients, etc., but there were some serious pitches in the last half. The climb exceeded 12 kms (about 7.8 miles) because we knew it was 12 kms just to get to Esino Lario, the first benchmark on the way up. There were still several kms after that. The first half was a nice steady 5%-6%. Easily manageable. Once at the top, the sweeping vistas of Lake Como's fingers were amazing.

On the way down from the first climb the instructions were not exactly clear what we were supposed to do next. Fortunately we didn't act on my first impression and we waited for someone to come along that we could ask. If we'd gone the way I thought we were supposed to go we would have ended up lost and having to climb back up the way we'd come in order to get back on course--it would have been many miles, a lot of time, and a lot more climbing.

There was a minor bump just before descending into Lecco. The more serious climb started from lakeshore at Onno and up to Asso and the backside of Madonna del Ghisallo. The route was an excellent mix of roads, good climbing, not too many cars. And we found excellent pizza, probably the best of the trip, at a restaurant called "Nick's Place" in Introbio.

The first photo, below, is the sign in Varenna pointing the way to our first landmark, Esino Lario 12 kms UP the road.



This is just a short distance from having left Varenna--it bucks up pretty quickly.












Landmark #1, Esino Lario.














































The balance of the photos chronicles our progression along the route from Esino Lario to Parlasco to Prato San Pietro to Introbio to Balisio, etc. We didn't find signs for Lecco and Onno. The shot of Linda and I between Ghisallo and Bellagio is from an overlook above Lake Como. It's such a beautiful place (but can be diminished by the amount of automobile and motorcycle traffic).