Riding to Dalpe has been on my "things I want to do before returning home" list for months. I'm going to count it now as accomplished, although looking at my GPS map it appears that at the edge of Dalpe I actually turned into the nearby village of Cormone.
It was overcast most of the day, and I encountered some rain coming over Monte Ceneri on the outbound leg. I brought both my open-back windbreaker and my light rain-jacket, and used them both individually and in combination, though at other times I felt quite warm. A few thousand feet of elevation can make quite a difference in temperature.
I took just a few snaps along the way. In Bellinzona the shafts of sunlight over the Castle of Sasso Corbaro were quite dramatic, but I didn't have the skills or camera equipment to catch it well.
Old churches are something you see a lot of here, but I particularly liked something about this one near Giornico.
The last shot is taken between Prato and Dalpe. The high alpine valleys look like they are right out of The Sound of Music.
I got an earlier start than usual and then I didn't push the speed and took several stops to stretch. I also had a very nice sandwich in Fiasso before starting back. Perhaps as a result I had less trouble with knees and neck
Stats for the day: Low elevation 690 feet (210m), high 4064 (1237m); 6082 ft (2073m) total climbing; 122.8 miles (197.6km).
I was tired last night after returning, and my stomache didn't want a real meal ... but I slept well and feel great today. I'm feeling really good about the ride, both because it's a goal accomplished and because it's just a fantastic, scenic ride, at the right level of difficulty to be challenging but reachable.
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