After our weird camping experience, and a climb up to the Italian border in the rain, we were in serious need of a rest. We had been cycling for 14 days in a row, in the cold and wet, and we were both physically and mentally exhausted.

We finally stoped in Tarvisio, just over the border, and spent two nights in a warm, dry hotel room doing virtually northing. Total bliss.

We woke the next day to pouring rain, with a 100km cycle ahead of us to Udine (pronounced oo-din-ay). Despite the rain, the first 50 kilometres or so was quite possibly the nicest stretch of cycling terrain we have come through to this point. We followed an old railway line downhill through huge rocky gorges and stone tunnels, across steel bridges and aqua covered streams, past mist covered mountains and old abandoned villages.

Amazing asphalt cycleway

Coming up to a tunnel

Rail bridge

Abandoned rail buildings

Pale aqua water

These cute critters were everywhere

Unfortunately, they haven’t completed the full rail trail, and the route then popped us out onto a rather busy highway for the next 20 kilometres or so (thankfully with a wide shoulder). We exited the mountains to rolling hills in and around Venzone and Germona, with a final 30 kilometre slog, through the rain into Udine.

We had arranged our accommodation in Udine through Warm Showers (an online community for cycle tourists) to camp in a host’s backyard in the suburbs of Udine.

We got in at around 6pm, dripping wet, and were very warmly greeted by Lorenzo and Ileana, our Warm Showers hosts for that evening. After putting up the tent and showering, they took us out to a degustation/wine tasting event. After about a 20-30 minute drive (it felt weird being in a car for a change!) we arrived in a small town where an event had been set up outside but under the cover of an old building. There was a DJ, over a dozen local Friulian wines on offer to try, and a selection of local dishes (mince rigatoni, cacio e pepper, barley risotto topped with fish roe). Most surprisingly, the nicest wine we tried was a sparking chardonnay (something we wouldn’t go near in Australia). Lorenzo did a great job of taking us through all the wines, while Ileana did the most amazing job of elbowing her way in to score us plates of the much desired cacio e pepper (a really simple but unbelievably tasty dish with pasta, a particular type of peccorino cheese and toasted pepper). It was the first time we had tried out Warm Showers, and it was a resounding success.