If you would like to see details about our journey, check out our itinerary and our bike route.
It was fun to bike on the flat for a day!
We started with a big buffet breakfast in our hotel. We felt a little pampered with that after such a leisurely day yesterday. We even took the time to use the hotel's bike pump and give the tires a good fill, and clean the chains good, before starting off.
The first 6 or 7 miles were back down the same roads, descending first steeply and then gradually toward the sea. On new-to-us country lanes and two stretches of gravel farm roads, we made our way over the one climb (a small one) of the day until we met the Adriatic at Cesenatico, with a port designed by Leonardo da Vinci. We didn't know anything about that ahead of time, but the beauty of the little estuary filled with replica sailing boats pulled us in, and we had to stop for lunch.
The next stage of the ride was on dedicated bike paths along the coast, until we hit a section of white gravel roads, where a local biker joined us and suggested we follow him for a few miles. We rode with him for a short time, but decided we wanted to follow our planned route to be sure we entered Ravenna on the proper roads. He said our way would be more complicated, and he was probably right; we ended up on winding gravel and mountain bike trails through a pine forest swarming with mosquitoes.
It was another hot day. We did fine until we hit the gravel roads and pine forest. The last 5 to 6 miles wore us down again. We were surprised to pick up a series of well-marked bike paths the last mile or so, leading us through the edge of Ravenna and into the old town, where we found our apartment with no problem at all and arrived right on schedule for checking in.
Our host, Valentina, and her mother made us feel right at home, handing us a welcome drink of carrot and orange juice, inviting us to wash our hands, and helping us tuck the bikes into a corner of the living room. We played with Valentina's dog, Bianca, while Valentina showed us how things worked in the apartment, told us about her own biking days (she raced when she was younger, but had to quit because of a heart problem). The apartment belongs to her son, who married and moved to Spain several years ago.
We wanted groceries for breakfast, and cold drinks, and we needed to do laundry, so we loaded up the dirty clothes in our backpacks and walked about half a mile to the laundromat. Where the door was locked, even though the sign on the door said it was open every day from 6:00 to 23:00.
Darn. We really wanted clean clothes. We started to walk away when a guy drove up, jumped out of his car with two big bags of laundry, and told us to wait and he would open the door. He pressed a big white button next to the door and pulled the door open.
This nice young guy was a local, just returned from a weekend trekking in the Dolomites, and offered to show us how the laundromat worked. He talked us through the electronic payment system and instructions for setting the washer up, and then we spent a few minutes comparing stories and pictures of hiking and biking adventures.
When our washer stopped, we stuffed the wet clothes back into our packs and took off for the grocery store, where we bought food for dinner and breakfast.
Back in our apartment, we ate, found a fan to cool off the bedroom, and collapsed.
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| Cesenatico. |
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| The Pineta di Classe is one of two historical pine forests (the other is the Pineta di San Vitale) outside Ravenna. Researchers believe the forests have existed since the 5th century. The tall pine trees were used to build ships in the ports along the coast. |
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| Sailing ships in the port city of Cesenatico. |
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| Back home, Rosie is challenging the kennel workers with teenage misbehaviors like ignoring commands to come when playtime is over. We are hoping she settles down quickly. |
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| It looks like Rosie is making friends. |
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| A little bike maintenance behind our hotel in Verucchio. |
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| We shared a lunch of tuna tartare and dark homemade bread. And lots and lots of water. |
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| The trail in this part of the forest was in good condition. About 2 miles of the path was a narrow mountain bike trail. I'm glad we spend a little time on our mountain bikes so we can handle some of these off-trail experiences. |
