Day 61 - Genoa to Milan, Italy

Crazy traffic leaving Genoa and then a beautiful mountain climb into the clouds!

A full on storm awaited Crazybikeguy as he made his way to the stylish city of Milan.

A perfect day turned on it's head!

The traffic in Genoa was absolutely chaotic at 8 am, a surprisingly unusual challenge as life in Italy really only begins after 10 am but today, Grant had to deal with buses, trucks, hundreds of scooters, with Italian drivers all getting to where they had to go in a rather maddening hurry.Dodging buses passing Grant on potholed side lanes that then came to a sudden halt was quite nerve wracking and he was anxious to leave the city and head up into calmer areas.

Heading north over the mountains as he left Genoa. As Grant has learnt over time on this crazy bike ride- his GPS navigation software does not take major road works into consideration, and one of the roads,alongside a very wide canal leading out of Genoa, on the inland route that he was happily travelling on suddenly came to an end.Trying to cross the A10 national road was a struggle but he managed to find his way to Rivarollo Ligure and from there things seemed a little easier.

On reaching San Cipriano in the rain, Grant was following his route map when a traffic policeman beckoned to him and asked him if he intended to turn left.Grant said he was going to do just that, as that was the way that he had mapped out. The policeman advised that the path ahead was difficult and very wet and that Mont Leco ( the mountain ahead) would be challenging to cycle on and that Grant should rather head towards Busalla on his way to Serravalle Scrivia. The policeman indicated an alternate path which Grant took.

At this point, Grant's plan was to overnight in Tortona which was roughly halfway between Genoa and Milan.The cycle path was great and he found the river that he had wanted to ride along side initially before he got side tracked by the policeman and enjoyed kilometer after kilometer of the most wonderful forest path ways, enjoying the fresh green scenery and the temperate weather for a while.

He was feeling good, the scenery was beautiful and with his spirits lifted since he was feeling considerably better than the last few days, he decided to push ahead and ride through Tortona and head towards Milan. It had started to drizzle softly.

Travelling towards Voghera on gravel paths and mud tracks proved to be a rather messy business as there had obviously been a lot of rain in the area.The tracks were slippery and filled with big pools of water and then the drizzle started to turn to rain. At Pavia it started to really rain hard accompanied by thunder and lightning. At this point, Crazybikeguy contemplated staying here for the night as the weather seemed to have settled in.But alas....he was SO close to Milan that he really felt a little rain wouldn't deter him from riding the extra 70 kilometers .

The route from Pavia to Milan went through the most amazingly scenic and verdant paths through forests and alongside a canal - even though the weather was wet and muddy, Grant could still appreciate the natural beauty surrounding him.

I had booked him a place in Milan earlier on and he had to navigate his way towards the northern part of the city to get there.

The thunder and lightning had stopped but the rain lingered until he stopped for the day in the stunning city of Milan.

164 km today. 689m in elevation.

Our mission.Their future.

'The secret of getting things done is to act'

- DanteAlighieri