1100km tour of Marche in a rental car

this one is going to be quick. (Google all these towns to see pics before i put them up)

[afterthought... barb took 3.21GB of photos! so far...]

Barb got here on the 11th. i picked her up in Roma after schlepping around Cinecitta (Italian hollywood) on class fieldtrip.

i stayed in a hostel that had beds like hammocks the night of the tenth.

we returned to ascoli, ate and slept. we wandered around the city monday.
rented a car tuesday and went to Aquasanta Terme ,Forca di Presta (sickest climb where i broke that spoke), Castelluccio, Montefalcone Appenino and Force.

day two of tiny car (smart cdi), we saw the beach, Ancona and Grotte De Frassasi. then the longest craziest ride home through Fiastra.

wednesday i did Mercolidi Mondile and attacked so hard that i thought i was going to throw up all over my bike. then barb and i went to Offida, which is not only the home of the 2010 Junior Cycling World Competitions but also a Longobard fortress that was taken over by the Romans, who built a church around it. that's right AROUND IT!

thursday we went to Civitella del Tronto, Parco Nazionale Gransasso e Monte della laga (retraced a ride i did) and then around this huge mountainy-ridge kind of thing.
on the descent from Macchia Del Sole, we came to an intersection and all the signs were pointing to the right. everything was to the right, in varying distances. i said "i guess there is a total abyss to the left." we chuckled about that and made some other comments, then proceeded toward Valle Castellana.
i saw a sign that said Aquasanta Terme, and followed it b-c that town is on the way to Arquata, which was where we wanted to go next... got that?
but the signs led us up up up , always up...
we drove through, and when i say through, i mean they were all around us, THREE (3) herds of various rumen type animals; one herd of goats, one sheep and one mixed sheep-goat.
we drove for another hour, up to the top of the ridge then down, all the time on switchbacks and straights shorter than a quarter mile.
and wouldnt you know it, we wound up coming back to that intersection that had all the signs pointing to the right! we truley had driven to nowhere and back!

ok... so friday.... we both were generally sick of the tiny car and of eachother.
Barb wanted to see the Conero Coast which is south of Ancona and a bitch to get to.
i was very sour and very grumpy at this point. we both were, like i said.
we found the coast, we walked, we took pictures, we left.
we drive some more, took wrong exits off the highways, wrong directions, and finally after 5 hours in the car we arrived at Urbino. the drive to Urbino can take as little as 2 hours. and this was after an average of 8 hours per day in tiny car for the previous 4 days. (!)

Urbino would have been beautiful had i not wanted to fall asleep whenever i sat down.
we saw the Palazzo Ducale, and churches and cripts, and college students....?
yes Urbino is a college town. and it is the wierdest thing to see funkily clad college kids wandering around in an ancient Renesaince art-arcitecture town that used to be and still is the home of giant art collection.... there were kids sitting on the steps of a massive catherdal doing the internet with wi-fi. does that sound odd to you?

then on the ride home Gloria called me! and i explained the situation.
- i called her when i was in Ancona earlier in the week but i didnt leave a message.
- i was driving home from Urbino.
- i was 20 minutes from Ancona as we were talking on the phone.
- she told me to get off the highway at ancona north and wait at the train station and she would find me.
(that was not the order i said it all, nor were my italian gears engaged so it was a struggle).
- then she called back and said that she had forgotten that she had plans with her husband. however i should come to Ancona on sunday for lunch.
later Barb and i got home, ate and slept. mostly b-c we were sicke of eachother. we also decided not to got to Roma the next day b-c we would probably end up killing eachother.

saturday i returned the car! thank GOD! then we wandered around the local, every-third-weekend-Antique market and every-weekend-cheap-stuff-market.
we bought Porchetta. actually we bought a kilogram of porchetta. we bought veggies and fresh cheese.

sunday, we went to Ancona and had a lovely afternoon with Gloria, Franco (husband), Giovanna (daughter) and 2 Francesco's (one boyfriend of Giovanna and one son).
Giovanna spoke english very well and helped barb translate and be translated.
Gloria gave barb a recipe for lentil soup; but since neither spoke the others language very well, it has pictures of veggies and sizes of flames that are to be used.

it was a hell of a week... over 1100 km in a Smart, over ten towns/cities, eating out at local restaraunts each night, having barb meet my italian family...
now back to listening to my classmates whine about stupid bullshit....