My first real day off...

And I spent a good chunk of it lost, but this time with a mission, a couple different maps, and a nagging belief that the beach was not that far away! And it was! 93.61 Kilometers round trip! That's 58.16 miles to you yanks, and roughly 50.54 Nautical Miles to all the pirates reading this. In cut-off Dickies and a loaded man-purse at that! Thank god I opted for stretchypants underneath! You want to catch funny stares from kit-ed out Italian roadies, don some casual clothes, a giant messenger bag, throw a beer in the water bottle holder of you $3000 titanium bike and PASS them. Jeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaalllooouuuuusssss!!!!!

And I think for the record, that's the longest I have ever ridden any bike in a single day...Amy if you are reading this, wasn't our longest day on the Paris - Copenhagen trip an 84 KM day? Across Luxembourg? Either way, I got back to La Frattoria, ate a bunch of food, got a cold shower to ice my legs and promptly fell asleep for an hour nap! What an amazing day! Thankfully last night we had a good old fashioned BBQ, Italian style...which took like 4 hours cause the old vineyard wood we were using could not keep the massive built in grill hot long enough to even scare the salmonella off the skewers. Hot enough to burn the hell out of my thumb though which was lame but for those of you who remember my scalding from Anchor Brewing, this was a walk in the park (with flowers, and wine, and nude models feeding me chocolates) compared to that burn. Killer grub though. And I could feel it burning up in my belly today as I rode through the flats to the coast. Ill let the pictures do most of the story telling...

L=grill, Bottom photo= meat

typical Italian homestead out this way...

Porsche mechanic's for Taint-boy...

Italian bike path, elevated next to the river.

the view from up there...

Anyone wanna go halvsies on a fixer-uper?

Another screen saver moment...

Made it to the town of Ravena, which is bigger than my map suggested, and the city streets are crazy maze like, which proved to be my downfall, got a little lost... but found...

an amazing church...

and an old castle converted to a city park...



Finally made it to the beach
and it was one I had been to with Jonathan and Eliza back on the first weekend so I felt less lost. Hungry for my sammy, and thirsty for a little half way through pick-me-up I hit this cool grocery...
for bottled water, chocolate and a beer I resigned to enjoy after making it BACK through the maze of Ravena and on the bike trail...

headed home and I see things with a different perspective than on the way. I was less hurried, and knew the route so I was able to stop and take even more photos. I stopped at this little church near Cosina where a tiny older lady was watering the

flowers that hang on the front of the tombs...

she obviously commutes by bike...
and I saw these gems along the route...
farm bike...

This one buried in bramble...

All in all another fabulous day, plenty of sunshine and the faint hint that it will be scorcher hot here this summer. Who am I to complain? Like I didn't bring shirts that would look absolutely amazing with the sleeves ripped off!?

S.