Ancona

Nice for an industrail area
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The ferry trip to Ancona didn´t start well . It seems I didn´t exist. Walked all the way to my room (my ticket was my room key) thinking "great, I can get out of my bike gear and have a shower" and the key didn´t work. It was a long walk back with all my gear to the reception area. way to my room (my ticket was my room key) thinking "great, I can get out of my bike gear and have a shower" and the key didn´t work. It was a long walk back with all my gear to the reception area. Had a chat to the lady behind the desk and she said there was a problem with the paperwork and would have to wait till the other copy came on board in half an hour or so and I should come back then. So I went and played a shoot em up video game and came back. I still didn´t exist. So she said to come back at 7 when the boat was leaving and she´d see what she could o then. It was about 6.15. So I came back and I finally got my room and could go and have a shower and get out of my sweaty sticky bike gear.

View from the big old church
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Arriving in Ancona harbour was a bit industrial so I thought I´d ride off in what I thought looked like a good direstion but actually ended up being more industrial. Mind you it did have a giant old archway that looked somewhat like the Arc de Triumph anly smaller. Very pretty but kind of out of place.

So I asked about and was given directions to the tourist sites which to me seemed a bit dismal ( a big old Cathedral I couldn´t really see and a pretty gloomy looking theatre) and I was less impressed by the giant hill I had to climb for the priveledge. There were plenty of tourists around which was comforting, otherwise I would have thought I was in the wrong spot.

Ain´t noone takin these bars.
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So I decided to ride into the central part of town to try and pick up a map. Good idea. Really lovely place. Great old buildings, parks and a boulevard that ran down to the “beach” (concrete pavillion you had to take an elevator to get down to).

There was this big lookout area above the beach which was surrpounded by a huge cage of metal blue metal bars. Gave me the feeling that people liked to jump for some reason. Strange thing was the bunch of padlocks that had been locked onto the bars. Very secure bars. Noone was stealing these bars.

Friendly little critter by the roadside. Didn´t move much. Odd that.
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Went back to the town n search of map and found the markets which were nice. These people love to sell old clothes and books. The biggest vinnies I´ve ever seen. Ate myself a nice big peach and banana and kept searching. Finally found a book store but the maps were all not detailed enough. Really nice place to ride around searching. Big wide streets. Not many cars. Too easy. Found a couple more book stores before I fainally got my map (still not particularly well detailed but it would have to do).

My favourite mountain
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It was getting on to 12pm so I plugged a town into the GPS that kept me along a river and I got underway. Really nice riding. Flat and tree lined streets. Not many cars. Cruising along at 25kph without a care in the world. The kms were flying away. Went off track once or twice but it didn´t really seem to be a problem.

Until....... I got to a point where the GPS was telling me to go up what looked like a big hill but when I looked at the map it seemed there was a way around it. The gps was telling me the hill was the quickest way so after a bit of um and ah-ing I decided to have faith in the GPS and go for it. After the first 15minutes I was thinking I should go back. I didn´t want to waste time and backtracking isn´t my thing so I plugged on. Not a good move. I climbed for over an hour, half riding half walking couse it was so steep. Each turn thinking it would flatten out and go through a valley.

Locals having a giggle
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When I finally got to the top there was a lovely little village and all the ladies of the village were outside the church chatting away and they had a bit of a laugh at me pointing at the bike. The men were all up the street a bit sitting around a spring so they offered me some of their sweet cold mountain water and they had a bit of a laugh too. I kept on heading to the top of the mountain and got a good look at the road I could have taken. It just did a nice flat curve around the base of the mountain. I´d like to say it was worth it, and I guess for the experience it was, but I will never trust the GPS again.

My guides from the hotel
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The ride down the hill on the other side was the reward for all that climbing. Hit my fastest speed to date, 61.1 kph which was fun but I was being cautious. Think I could have got 65 but anyway. Better safe than off the edge of the road.

I had one last short flat bit before the hills started as I reached the band of hills that runs throught the middle of Italy. I was not looking forward to these. I kept on riding till I got to a lovely little place called Fabriano. I rode on through town and had a quick check of the old buildings but I really wanted to get some kms behind me so I kept on going.

Some one really wanted to put a cross up somewhere high.
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I was going afor another 20mins or so when I realised it would be dark soon and I wasn´t seeing much in the way of hotels or pensions in the villages so I started thinking I should head back. I was also getting a bit tired too. I had seen sign for a hotel which I thought had said 2.5km but I should have reached that by this stage so I went back and tried to see if I´d taken a wrong turn. Didn´t find out much so I thought I should ride back. Then I saw another sign which said it was 10minutes away so I changed my mind. And then I changed my mind again. I did this riding back and forth for about 20 minutes before I found a little restaurant so I went in and asked. The hotel I was looking at was 25kms away and there was no was I was going to make that.

Decision made, I started the ride back to Fabriano. It was dark by the time I got in so when I saw sign that had a bed on it and said Hospedalo I thought “great, a hotel with a name with pedalo in it so it must be a sign!” Pedalo, pedals. After I rode past one nice looking hotel thinking “pedalo, pedalo” and I saw a few more signs for this great hotel so I thought it must be good. I kept on riding and riding until I finally saw a sign for it that pointed back in the other direction. So I rode back a bit and still couldn´t find it. There was a big old hopital but no hotel. An then the penny dropped and I realised that Hospedalo was, surprise surprise, a hospital.

I checked on the GPS which conveniently has hotels in it and the closest on was the one I had passed before so I rode back to it and got myself a room. Really nice people who were really helpful and gave me some directions and a bit of raod information for the next day. Didn´t bother with dinner and just went to bed. The hill had really killed me. I was not looking forward to tomorrow when they would start for real.