Er Jane...where are our bikes...?

Lets start with a brief summary of the days leading up to our least favourite city in Italy - Padova. We started at Isola Della Scala from where we got the train to Montagnana after waiting in the station for a good 3 hours. Somehow when we got there we managed to swindle our own apartment for only a couple of euros more than the hostel we had originally booked into which was a definite bonus. Being that it was the night of the World Cup Final we decided to head into the walled city to see how the night would turn out. Since we were in Italy we were obviously supporting the Italians, if not just so they were in a good mood the next day!

Despite not being a very big place, Montagnana had gone all out for the football. Every restaurant and bar had set up their own TV screens and there was a big screen in the centre square as well. There were not as many flags or hooters as there were in Milan but the celebrations were just as good leaving us thinking "So this is what it's like to win a World Cup!" Penalty shoot outs are also very enjoyable to watch when you don't really support either team -  England against either Portugal or Germany however is a different story!

Ok so we were 9 days into our 5 week cycling holiday and some arsehole had stolen our bikes!

Montagnana came alive after they won; cars were driven around the town in circuits complete with people leaning out of windows and flashing all available lights and horns. We even did our own circuit of the town to fully take in the atmosphere and among other offers we were invited to join this group of Italians on their pickup truck as they drove around. As much fun as that could have been we kindly declined and instead just soaked up the happiness.

The next day we cycled to Monselice which was thankfully pretty uneventful. We managed to follow our proposed route extremely well and this time were not caught out by thunderstorms or closed bridges. When we left Monselice the next day however we had slightly more trouble...

Somehow we managed to cycle along the same road 3 times in our quest to find the right entrance to the national park we had to go through. When we finally found the right one we might have been better off going the other way! Turns out this park had a few shitty hills in it including one where we abandoned hope of cycling up in and instead took to walking up it. We are not ashamed in the slightest to admit to this considering how we had already added a detour to our route, the temperature was in the late 30s, we had fully loaded panniers and worst of all there were traffic controlling measures on the road so we were swamped with cars. We started to think at this point that maybe Matteo was right about us not being able to manage shitty hilly places and so Florence to Siena was looking more and more like a bus journey!

Our ride into Padova from there should have acted as a warning as to what the place had in store for us...we entered on a motorway, were searching for a non-existent road and growing grumpy by the minute! It was a relief to finally find the hostel and we are very pleased to report that none of our roomates snored so we got a very good nights sleep - good job considering what was about to happen...

The next morning we locked our bikes up at the station and checked our luggage into storage so that we could go get a bite to eat and add more to this blog. Big mistake! We returned to collect our bikes with food in our stomachs and a smile on our face...but where were the bikes?! "I swear they were just by that orange moped!", "Well they should be obvious", "Er Jane...look what I've found.." And it was at that time that Abby picked up the bike lock from next to the orange moped but it had been hacked in half! Problemi!

Ok so we were 9 days into our 5 week cycling holiday and some arsehole had stolen our bikes!

We experienced several emotions from then on but surprisingly none of them were anger: shock, disbelief, relief that we wouldn't bruise our legs anymore from the bikes hitting them and finally settling on sheer amusement! On the positive side it meant we could go visit the Carabinieri who Jane had been desperate to go see ever since we got here. We think its the sashes but they look so much better and more in control than English policemen...maybe the guns also help!

Right slight change of plans needed! Since we had been "robben" as the police report said we had 3 options - buy new bikes, hire bikes or go to a blackpoolesque beach resort for a few days..hmm tough choice. Since we were due to meet up with 4 other friends 2 of whom were also meant to be cycling a lot of amused telephone calls were put through to England. We feel sorry for Amanda since she was at work all day and so only found out late the evening before she was meant to be going that the bikes were no more! After weighing up all the pros and cons of cycling or training it was Rimini here we come!!