Day 9 (Italy): Salo - Verona (caterpillars are lemmings)

today’s distance: 76km
total distance: 982km
riding time: 3.5h

Breakfast with Guido was a pleasure - I had asaked him about his job as a social worker and though he should have been in the office he still hung out with me. The night before he had told me that his co-workers were talking about the crazy biker heading to China and the cashier in his office apparently said: “What do I have to tell my nieces and nephews? At least when they ask him he can say that he’s biked to China!” Well, I’m not there yet and it’s still a long way to go.

After heading out I went uphill for a bit only to discover that caterpillars too commit communl suicide. This group of guys was heading down a tree and across the street.

Needless to say, none of them made it. As soon as the one (or a few more) in the front had been squashed by a car, the next one tried to move ahead only to enoucnter the same fate.

Too bad - there was nothing I could do. I saw these lines of caterpillars a few more times today, none of them seemed to make it across these busy roads.

Under overcast skies I moved to Verona with a brief stop in Sirmione, a touristy quaint village on a spit of land jutting into Lake Garda. It’s good fun to distinguish the different tourist groups - Germans are easy enough to spot, as were Russians. A good number of Chinese groups as well as Japanese as well.

A good tailwind drove me into Verona along busy roads and just as I reached the home of Romeo and Juliet the sky turned into a massive blue. Great day!