Italy Trips - 2010

Never too early to start planning now. In 2010, Bella Vita will be offering 2 trips. The first will take place in March to coincide with the Monte Paschi Eroica 1-day classic race and the start of the Tirreno Adriatico stage race. The Monte Paschi Eroica 1-day race is held primarily on the white gravel roads around Sienna with the finish in Sienna's Piazza del Campo. Tirreno Adriatico is the quintessential Italian stage race.
The 2nd trip will take place in October for the Giro di Lombardia. This a gorgeous race around Italy's Lago di Como.
The Monte Paschi Eroica and the Giro di Lombardia have great Gran Fondo events the day before the actually race to give you a great taste of just how hard these races are.

Ciao

New Website in the works!

We have starting moving everything over to the new Bella Vita Italian Vacations website. Squarespace offers more flexibility and is a bit more sophisticated than Blogger. You will still be able to access this blog directly but the www.bellavitavacations.com domain will now direct you to the new site. Ciao

2009 Giro d' Italia Trip

Passo Stelvio : This is just the very top section looking back down the valley. It takes quite an effort to get this view, but well worth it.

This view can be intimidating, considering how hard it is just to get to THIS point.


Bella Vita's 2009 trip is taking shape. We have the Stage 17 summit finish near our place. We are riding over to the stage route and up the finishing climb to watch the race. We're also planning on spending a couple days in the Dolomites, near Bormio. We will ride up the passo di Stelvio from the west side, cross into Switzerland over the Umbrail Pass, and return by climbing back up the passo di Stelvio's eastern side(technically called the Stilfserjoch) . Day 2 will include the Gavia Pass and the Mortirolo (passo di Foppa). For an optional 3rd daym we can head to the East and ride the Sella Loop, which includes passo di Gardena, Campolongo, Pordoi, and Sella.

In the 2009 Giro, we could see a great battle between Ivan Basso and Lance Armstrong on the brutal slopes of the Block Haus during stage 17. Eddy Merckx blew to pieces on this rarely-used, un-relenting dead-end road in 1972(?). A few years ago I watched Basso win at Passo Lanciano, which is where the 8km dead-end road starts, leading up to the Block Haus summit. We'll ride over and join the race route and ride up this legendary climb.
After winning the Giro in '06, Basso was sidelined for most of 2007, and 2008 for "attempted doping" in the Operation Puerto fiasco. I expect him to enact some revenge in 2009. The verdict is still out on what Lance is capable of. Personally, I'd rather see him suck-it-up and play a support role for Leipheimer. He could also be a good lead-out man for some sprint wins.

Rental Contact Information

If you are interested in renting the property in Roio del Sangro, please use the contact information below, or you may contact us directly. ciao:

Laila Pantalone
Assistente d'Ufficio
Remax People
Via Luigi De Crecchio, 12
- Galleria Imperiale-
66034 Lanciano, Chieti
tel 39(0)872.71.19.56
fax 39(0)872.70.21.99
people@remax.it

Roio del Sangro House

Roio Scenery


Living Room and Guest Bedroom


Entry and Dining room

Bella Vita rides Monte Paschi Eroica's bianca strada

While in Tuscany, the Bella Vita crew hit the nearby Monte Paschi Eroica course and followed to for about 2.5 hours. I hardly doubt we were riding that stuff as fast as Cancellara was a couple months ago, but it was fun to pretend. The course is marked extremely well and the gravel roads are amazingly smooth at speed.

Me and Kristine made it here in one piece. Went to watch the Giro yesterday and that was awesome. Perfect weather so far. Riding has been great. Heading up to Tuscany on Monday to see Sienna and Florence.
Ciao