Blog #17 Bologna to Pesaro

September 28th

I am so in love with riding in Italy

Left the hostel at 7.30am. It was cool and apart from an exciting ride across the city amidst the dirty sienna colour. The suburbs need a clean a coat of paint. It was easy enough to extricate myself from the city, less so along the narrow two lane SP31 but it was morning and most of the traffic was entering the city. Soon I was into the countryside once again … and also a total absence of anyone but old people; at a cafe a table of women talk animatedly. Is this the fate that awaits you when you become old? As an experiment I asked Siri to find me a cafe and it did. AI is already imprinting itself on this adventure. Even less urgency to untangle my needs from unintelligible conversations with street life. But wasnt' that the whole point of travel, to meet the locals?

10 seconds of my early morning ride

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/df3d33_44ceabb0dafb4d8d8ab19bafb6ddb150/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Just by Cafeteria dell Angelo on the via Becchi Tognini est there is a small supermarket where I buy milk and eat my pizza slice bought in Bologna. Observation: nothing is perfect. Pavement brickwork changes, concrete worn away, breeze block showing through scree, road signs atilt, bicycle racks bent, everything is breaking. The digital age has given us an unrealistic rendering of our life, but it is imperfection that is beauty, it is madness that is genius and as I ride in the sun with bike, enough clothes and a smile it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

Not Absolutely Boring

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/df3d33_d92ffe78cb5a4b2bbb778c62d7322996/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Stopped in a park on the edge of Rimini shaded by trees. About to reach the first 100 mile day of the trip. Remember what the trip is about, more tommorow but to touch base with the idea:

4 things

1. prove the bike is the best - Yamaha Wabash

2. Make sure it’s always locked up … no bike, end of trip - Squire Locks

3. Compare faraway places with what we have at home - Route YC. My gut feeling is everything you need for adventure is on our own doorstep.

4. Write an interesting blog, because not everyone can do this kind of ride and I want to share it. And it’s free!:)👍

Arrived at my digs, narrow paved ally. First thought: no shops nearby or anywhere to eat, the owner is doing his shopping, should have gone to a seafront hotel next to where they sell beach balls with end of season prices; nice and easy. Then the owner turned up in his very small electric car.

We entered his mothers family home, large dark hallway leading to a tiny back courtyard and a little back room for my accommodation. It was all wonderful. You’d have to be Italian to love the closed back area, adjacent stories looked down on me, their washing on the balconies. I feel a hint of southern Italy, a Napoli feeling staring Sophie Loren and you imagine the degraded country sienna surface of the walls peeling away. It’s the medieval look I like.

My host said to go two streets away to Trattoria del Sante, €20, local prices. Showered, plugged all my appliances in so they’d be ready for the morning and walked the two streets.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/df3d33_3355a1a3fd0546e5a516a9a0b8699d75/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Authentic. Not a tourist in sight. TV on the wall. Chat show and Luciano Ligubue turns up. What is it about the Italians? They can be impossibly good looking for a 63 yr old and his Wilkipeadia entry lists him as: singer songwriter composer multi-instrumentalist film director screenwriter producer author. And he has a political life. Hate him? Not at all … but I am cyclist, I get lost, don’t know where I am, indeterminate direction, get pissed easily. Not always anything original to say. Actually not entirely true.

Map of the Day - 108 miles

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/df3d33_cbb597bf6cf049daa1842794185f4d8e/1080p/mp4/file.mp4