I love Italy. Did I mention that already? This is just the coolest place...and now I've been to quite a few other towns from Fano and they are all so quaint in their own, very unique way. Each I love for its own reason. Time has a totally different meaning here. I suppose it's appropriate that my attempt to keep time on my wrist keeps being somehow messed up. Two watches have been water logged in one way or another and I go timeless now. It's okay, though there are times we have to keep to since we're on the schedule of the tour.
Ciclismo Classico is doing a VERY amazing job of taking us from town to town (we get ride directions every morning and one guide rides with us and the other drives a nice van full of our bags, food, etc). Both of the guides are awesome and very accomplished cyclists (one is a former bike racer/trackie and the other is a triathlete).
From Fano, we rode to Urbino, where we spent last night. It's an amazing place. It's brick. Literally, the whole darn place is brick! And it has a very steep road that probably is around a 25% grade. The ride from Fano to Urbino was really fun--it was the first real day of riding (Sunday we went for a short spin to make sure the bikes fit correctly and give the group an idea as to how to read the route notes, but it was only 10k so very short). The Italian countryside is so picturesque...it's what you see in pictures, but it's real to me now. It never had been before.
There was a decent amount of climbing and I'm okay with admitting that I really enjoyed having a triple chain ring. Yep, you heard correctly. With these grades and constant rollers or climbing (all fairly steep), standard gearing would have my knees screaming at me. Also, I felt like I was climbing much faster than usual. Sure, there's oxygen here, that's nice, too.
After arriving in Urbino, it was an absolutely perfect summer evening so I didn't waste any time and picked up some gelatto, and did a bunch of other shopping. The highlight was a journal and some water. I found a natural food store (it was small). It was fun dealing with all of the shop owners who pretty much didn't speak any English at all. I was debating whether or not to buy some kamut croissants (croissants are big here...aren't those French?) A guy walked up and started commenting on them in Italian. I quickly let him know I didn't understand and he didn't speak English, yet he was still able to relay to me that he's a professor (Urbino has a lot of colleges in it), and he told me to immerse myself in the Italian language (like watching tv, etc in Italian) and I'll learn it. It was fun to understand so much just from hand gestures and both of us speaking the languages we know. I ended the day with a 1/2 hr massage (a little different there since there isn't as much privacy) but the girl was good and I haven't had a massagio for many months.
Dinner was yummy and I was a little late due to the massage. Again, yummy (not quite as fabulous as dinner had been the previous night in Fano), but still very good. Rabbit and boar were the highlights, but for me it was the very thin pasta noodles with raddichio cooked in and the dessert which was flan-like with different fruit/chocolate toppings. Pics later, it's hard to describe.
Now I'm in the middle of nowhere (still gorgeous, still wonderful). Town is called Pontebovescco. The ride here was awesome and I picked the extra loop to do which meant (since the other guests didn't do it except for two who went off on their own) that there was insane climbing, insane descending and I got to ride as hard as I could with our guide. It turned into a bigger/harder effort than anything I've done in months. Thank goodness there was a cool pool with jets (like a hot tub, but cold) where I spent significant time this evening. Time for a shower and a movie about Umbria (Gubbio, I believe that's where we're headed tomorrow).
Btw, I had some questions about safety--it's absolutely safe here (I'm not being stupid, the guides told us this), there's nothing to be concerned about and I'm being smart/wouldn't put myself in any sort of iffy situations.
Ciao! Buona notte!
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