Possagno, a place to be enriched.

We left the town of Conegliano at 8.30am after a terrible night's sleep.  The place we stayed at was called the Delle Rose which was a nice place, but in summer, it's a sweat box and too close to the train station. The fan had one speed, flat out, which nearly blew me off the bed, and the noise it made reminded me of that jumbo jet the other night.  To add salt to my wounds, I left the double window fully open and when the 12.10am express decided to come through town, I seriously thought it was coming through my window and kill me.  So, all in all, I had a shit of a sleep.  The photo below is Peter standing with the owner Lupcho of the Delle Rose B & B.  I should say that the hospitality we were shown was amazing.

 Today was the day I had been looking forward to for some time.  We were heading to the town of Possangno where my father in law was born and lived for the first 13 years of his life. His family the immigrated to Australia shortly after WWII.  The photo below is the first sighting of the town.

 The ride today would take us along quiet country roads with very little shoulder to ride on.  At least it wasn't that hot.  We stopped for a coffee early in the ride and enjoyed what would be the start of an amazing day, full of experiences.

 The photo above was taken as we entered the town of Possagno. We had to climb yet another hill to reach the town and then made our way to the local supermarket to get some lunch before we searched for Betilla.  I was given some photos of people and Possagno from many years ago and I needed to show them to people to locate my target, Betilla. 

Whilst having lunch on the footpath a lady came out and started to talk to us in broken English.  We worked out that her name was Cunial, just like nearly everyone else in the town.  She pointed out Francesca Cunial and we were on our way to Betilla's home.

We followed Francesca in her down the hill and turned into a narrow alley which led to 3 people standing out the front of their home.  I knew straight away from one of the photographs that the elderly lady was Betilla.  The photo below was taken by Peter whilst I was going through the photos with Betilla and her son Jan Carlo.  She was so moved when I showed her the photo of her brother who was killed in a car accident many years ago when he was in Australia.  We all went inside, sat down and just talked and talked and talked.  I was lucky Jan Carlo could speak English and he could help translate between his mother and myself.  It was an encounter that I shall never forget.

 The photo above is the moment I showed Betilla the photo of her brother. 

 The photo above is sitting in Betilla's home going through the family album. 

 The photo above is of the church is Possagno.  Now there's a story in this church for another day.

After coffee and biscuits, Jan Carlo took us for a drive of the town and up to see the church.  We then continued on to see Tony and Graciella Cunial who lived in a very nice home in the Dolomite's overlooking the city of Possagno. I was in awe looking down onto the town below whilst talking to people who lived and breathed this amazing part of the world.

I also got to meet Itello, who is the godfather of my father in law.  He was amazed why 2 old cyclists would want to come and visit him in a town that's hard to find on any map.

The photo above is of the church overlooking the town. 

After running around the countryside still in my smelly cycling gear at 5pm, Jan Carlo took us to the hotel on top of yet another hill.  We got cleaned up and relaxed over a coffee and beer whilst waiting to be picked up in 2 hours time.  

Jan Carlo and Betilla picked us up to head up into the Dolomites to meet up with Tony and Graciella for dinner.  Once again we could see forever high up in the mountains.  It was just one of those moments that will be engraved in my mind forever.  We enjoyed a fabulous Italian meal with special company. 

We went back down to our hotel around 10.30pm to type up this story and hit the sack.  Tomorrow we have big day planned on our rest day.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.