Argentina in the Mediterranean Alps! (4SA220A)
Welcome to blooming Provence, in southern France! A wonderful weather welcomes us to this wonderful region of Europe, that we are going to discover in the following days, together with Piemonte and Liguria in Italy! The bikes (and the Tour Guide!) are ready, the group from Argentina has arrived and the tour can begin!
A long and challenging first riding day took us from the coast of Provence to the mountain village of Valberg, quite a big change in terms of climate and temperature! The highlight of today was the impressive Verdon Canyon, the biggest in Europe, a paradise for hiking, kayaking... and of course motorcycling! After a relaxing lunch in Castellane, we did the famous "Route des Cretes" around the canyon and then finally headed to Valberg, passing through the equally beautiful canyon of Daluis with its incredible red rocks.
No packing today, we are spending two nights in Valberg! Some of us (well the most of us!) decided to go for a ride, so after a "healthy" breakfast we headed to Utelle, passing by the wonderful Gorges de Cian, and then an incredible beautiful and narrow mountain road! Today it was difficult to find an open restaurant for lunch, but finally we saw a little place by the road with only two options on the menu, steak with "pommes frites" or pasta with meat. Not bad! On the way back countless curves took us back to the Gorges do Daluis and then finally to Valberg!
From where can we enter Italy if the Col de Tende is still closed after a huge landslide that happened last year? We decided to head northwards and we faced three challenging mountain roads before entering Italy!: Col des Champs, Col d'Allos and Col de la Madeleine! The weather was just perfect and we enjoyed a great ride before finally arriving in Vicoforte where we sleep right in front of its wonderful sanctuary! And now some action photos!
Liguria, the italian region where we arrived today, looks very tiny on a map, so nobody expected the incredible amount of turns we did today! From Vicoforte we headed to Cortemilia where we had our first break, and then we finally left Piemonte and entered Liguria. Since we didn't want to use the highway to pass around Genova, the only thing we could do was to use the very twisty normal roads! A long, tiring.... and great ride!!!
Rest day doesn't really means that we will rest! We rode to the famous Cinqueterre and had a break and light lunch in Manarola before riding back to Rapallo and trying to reach Portofino. Since it was saturday and the weather was wonderful, it was absolutely impossible to find a parking spot for all our bikes there! So we had our last coffee break in Santa Margherita Ligure before finally coming back to the hotel.
An intense day! Not much time today for taking pictures, we left Rapallo on a beautiful morning and, after passing by Genova, we reached the Faiallo pass in time for lunch... but hundred of motorcyclists were there! So it took some time to get our food... and we took the chance to watch a bit of the MotoGP race. After that, well, countless curves again took us back to the coast to reach FInale Ligure!
After a challenging (as usual!) ride through the mountains during the morning, we rode back to the coast and entered France in Menton, where we had a great lunch by the beach! A few miles after, we reached Monaco and did two laps of the Formula One track! But we did not manage to qualify for the next GP, so we had to finally go back to Vence... this tour is over, but all the emotions will stay with us!!! Hasta luego amigos! Y, como siempre, Viva Maradona!!!