I was supposed to be in Italy today watching Stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia. As you know the trip is postponed till September when hopefully my brother will be able to go and run circles around me.
The next best thing to being in Italy on the Amalfi Coast today was watching Stage 3 live on the computer. I found a site that was streaming the European sports channels live and I found one with Irish announcers. It may seem weird but they were speaking English so I was able to understand more than if I were listening to announcers on an Italian station.
What I really liked were the aerial shots of the region, and having been there I was familiar with the Amalfi Coast part of the stage. Eventually the race moved through the mountains, but I enjoyed seeing the landscape of an area I have not visited. This link from VeloNews.com has quite a few great photos of Stage 3 on the coast.
The Giro d’Italia lasts three weeks and today was only the third of twenty-one stages. The final stage of the race is on May 26 and of you want to see any of Italy’s beautiful countryside you can watch live in the mornings at http://www.kakibara.com/
On the right hand side of the site, where it says “Search Live Streaming Video Here” enter Giro and a number of stations pop up. All you have to do is click on one and you are in Italy watching the Giro d’Italia.
Thirty-six year-old Italian Luca Paolini won the stage today and as the winner, is now wearing the pink jersey, the maglia rosa. I didn’t know why the current winner wears that color jersey until today when I read a story about it. La Gazzetta dello Sport is the Italian sports newspaper that created the Giro, and the color of the paper used to print the newspaper was pink. Since 1931 the winner of the general classification wears the pink jersey.
There is a long way to go in the race yet, and it’s exciting everywhere the race passes through in Italy. 2013 is the 96th edition of the Giro and this year’s route is 3405 kilometers. Tomorrow’s stage of the the race is one of the longest, 246 kilometers, and has the first uphill finish, ending in Calabria.
twoblackdoggies
My husband was very disappointed that we missed the Giro d’Italia by a few days when we were in Orvieto in 2011, will have to plan for it next time – sounds like something he’d really enjoy.