It also provided Chris with an opportunity to T cut out the scratches I managed to acquire the previous day after a disagreement with a spiny and vicious hedge following another great Tom e Tom idea to direct us across a field. It worked a treat and my excess lived to fight another day.
So, we left it to Tom x 2 to navigate a safe passage to our destination and sure enough it managed to transport us vertically and back to the Middle Ages within 15 minutes. I'm not kidding, I was starting to wonder if the residents of the villages with the ridiculously narrow streets had seen a motor vehicle before.
Eventually we navigated around Biella and started the climb towards the sanctuary, which pleased the Corsa no end, although, to be fair, it did OK. By the time we arrived, the air temperature had dropped from 25 to 18 degrees.
The Sanctuary was quite an operation with 10 or so restaurants, shops and some religious stuff. This included the Basilica, which is a domed church and had a wide (and I mean wide) selection of nativity (and similar) scenes from around the World. Intriguing and in some cases, bizarre.
After a picnic lunch including the bread from the local bakery (Italy has to be the best for bread), we made our way to the cable car which took us up the mountain. We had bought a second ticket for the onward journey to the mountain peak and it took a while for us to realise that this involved the curious wire baskets which were disappearing in to the cloud. Rach decided to give it a miss but we'd shelled out an extra 5 Euros each and it couldn't be that far (could it?), so the three surviving and intrepid explorers went for it and jumped in to the shopping trollies.
Twenty minutes later our trollies emerged at the top (and 8,000 feet asl) and although cloudy, when the clouds did part it was jaw dropping. Oxygen was optional.
And then we had the return journey to 'look forward to'. Actually, it was fine and we met up again with Rach who we'd left with no money and no phone. Whoops! What else, but a visit to the café for a very chocolatty chocolata before taking the cable car back down to base camp.
We headed back to Piverone via Biella and a 21st century route (although no less attractive for that) and finished the day with a barbecue. At least, we would have done if the bloody thing had stayed alight and the gas bbq hadn't run out of gas. Still, sitting on the terrace as the sun set and the mossies buzzed around our heads was very pleasant.
Today (in true Tour de France fashion but without the bikes and any cycling whatsoever) is a rest day. We had lunch at the local ristorante, which cost the princely sum of 11 euros each for a starter (primi), main (secondi), 1/4 litre of very nice vino rosso, coffee and bread, all in very convivial surroundings.
We need to rest this afternoon because we have an early start tomorrow morning to take Chris to Turino Aeroporto before heading in to Turin itself but not via Mini Cooper (which is a reference to the Italian Job by the way!).
As an aside, we're still doing battle with the wireless connection and/or internet which have been very patchy especially when you need them! Lou has been very stoical or should that be hysterical?
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