Leaving the Dolomites was like to leave home the second time for both of us. Goodbye nonno, nonna and everybody. Thank you for everything and hope to see you all again soon.
So, november 5th, after almost 3 weeks of "beautiful life" with warm cosy bed and wonderful weather, we took up again our handlebars. It rained like cats and dogs but we were, in some way, too excited to feel the asphalt again to postpone the departure. We also wanted to test our "rain-proof" materials. And also the road is supposed not to be hard but a lot of downhill.
And it was a bad experience. I once told you how I felt uneasy to go down the road in the dark, well it is worse under the rain, especially after some time, our brakes were completely ruined. It was scary!!!
The material is "proofed" for 4 hours under the rain. But we had to ride for almost 5 hours, so we got quite wet (and cold) when we finally got to Trento. Brrrr. We promised to ourselves that unless it's really inevitable, we wouldn't hit the road on a rainy day again.
Well, the positive thing about the raining-rolling is that we saw wonderful views in a very different angle. Imagine those grandiose mountains covered with shining bright yellow and orange (leaves) trees under a heavy threatening grey sky. We didn't take any pictures, too concerned about the road and also too lazy to rummage among our bagage..... It was a odd feeling of going to Trento by bike, the place we had been to by car just a few days ago (it was damn faster and more comfortable by car, I tell you ....)
After Trento, we headed to Ferrara and had 2 successive nights of wild camping. Guessed we had to practice a bit before going really "into the wild". It was OK in fact, I just missed a bit the hot shower :-) :-)
In Ferrara, we succeeded to synchrony with Alessio's mum's schedule. Such a pleasure to meet again in this beautiful city
We crossed Verona on our way, always under a bit of rain. Juliet's house was soooo full of tourists that we didn't bother to stop by: caressing her breasts for whatever luck it may bring didn't seem appealing to us :-) :-)
(Verona's coliseo)
November 11th 2014
Direction Bologna, "the fat city" which is just some 50km away from Ferrara. Such a boiling city, with crows of students and young noisy people :-) :-) We liked it to stroll about in its sparkling streets, under its long porticoes, to take unexpected turns in unknown corners just to find ourselves again in the middle of an another "hype" piazza.
There was a chocolat fair when we arrived in Bologna
But it was to see bella Ericuccia that we were here. We also experienced the extraordinary hospitality of Giulia who let us use freely her cosy apartment during our bolognese stay
From there, we took the train (yes, it happens that we do not cycle!!!) to Florence, the birth place of Renaissance, not only to visit the famous Duomo or to eat some lamprodotto or to see "Madonna with the Child" in 50 different ways in Uffizi
or to
But also to see some friends, so dear to our hearts
(With Pippo, a comrade in arms during their "military service" at Trussardi)
(With Tommy, Gab-Gab and La Mita)
(Who is ze boss here??)
(And Peter, Alessio's first Chef, the one to whom Alessio owes his entrance into the gastronomy's world)
We were so delighted to see them all, to feel the friendship's warmth. But, "every season has an end", we had to leave, even it was hard to hear Gab-Gab murmuring "are you sure, dears? Are you sure?"
So tuesday November 18th, we headed back to Bologna, spent a last night there.
November 19th, after a huge breakfast of 500gr of pasta for two, we took a 100 km ride to arrive to Ravenna, the mosaic capital.
(the baptism of Jesus)
Here, we were received by Massimo, our host from Couch Surfing. A very nice guy.
And we met up again with Alessio's mum. Seems like we could never say good-bye.
Hum, I can hear people chucking and smiling "oh, la mamma italiana and her son!!!!". Well, they are not really the Italian archetype. Her mother takes always great cares of us without feeding us with huge pasta plates :-) Alessio doesn't speak with his hands (and not a womanizer neither, hopefully :-) :-) ). In fact, they are from the part of Italy that belonged to Austria before the WWI.
November 21th 2014
We set sail, or rather handlebars to Faenza. It was a detour to see some long time friends.
In Faenza, we had a lovely evening with Lorenzo and his family. Simona was so kind to ask her friend in Rimini to host us. It was a salvation because we had no answer from Couch Surfing nor Warm Shower and the region seems not very easy for wild camping.
So the next day, November 22th, after multi good bye, we left Faenza. On the way, we made an detour to Cesenatico to pay an hommage to Pantani, aka The Pirate, one of the biggest cyclists of history, the Italian pride, died 10 years ago. "He was murdered because he won all the time", said to me a signore met at the cemetery
In Rimini, we were convinced by Raphaella and Andrea to stay one more day to discover more this so crowded seaside city in summer time. They are so kind to us. And the little Agata is such a sweet and fun girl and we can not help falling under her charm.
Tomorrow is an another day! We hope to arrive to Senigallia, an another town on the Adriatic coast. With no clue where to sleep this time! Please, pray for us that the wild camping would be easy :-) :-)
