Sainte-Marguerite

I prefer a late start as it always takes ages to have breakfast, pack the bike, and put on all the clothes. The sat nav was programmed last night so I knew what was to come. I had three options for today. I didn't want boring toll roads so that was out. There was an easy way to get to the town near Asti where I am now. (It's a sleepy place called Calamandrana.) Handy for tomorrow's leg or the third option was a longer harder ride over the top. I chose the hard one.
What a great days riding I had after a night worrying about having the correct forms for going into Italy. It's easy if you are flying into Italy but if you are coming from France and starting in UK then ending in Malta, it takes a while to fill it in. Having said that there was no border control at all. Nothing. I just rode into Italy without stopping.
What a ride, several hours of twisty roads with not a lot of traffic. The views were spectacular. I took a few photos and could have stopped a lot more but I was enjoying the ride so much I didn't want to keep stopping.
I was a little worried when I saw lots of signs saying cars are not allowed unless you carry chains for the snow until April 15.
The temperature dropped to 6c as I climbed to 6200 feet then it quickly rose again si came down, so I was fine. The roads had no snow but as you see in the photo it was fun to stop and watch people skiing below me. I don't know what the pass is called from Gap, but what a perfect road surface it was. I loved every minute of it.
I checked in the Alegra hotel at 4pm which is nice so I'm going to try for a similar arrival time tomorrow.
After today's fun I want to make a bit distance so I've booked a hotel which sounds very posh called The Alisei palace hotel. It's four star and is on the beach front at Rimini. Not bad for 56 euros including breakfast.
Tomorrow's ride will be a lot of tolls because to get to Rimini from here is four hours using tolls or 7.5 hours not using them.Read more