In which Sid and Doris plan to make a new plan later, passing the day with animatronic dinosaurs and quite a lot of eating
Today is a day of planning. After admiring the monumental (and pointless, because we are just going straight back down tomorrow) view, our first attempt was to work up a route over the Appenines to the Mediterranean coast north of Naples. We have our new paper maps, maps on the PC and hotel, B&B and AgriTurismo sites all to hand. There are many, many permutations of roads, cols, passes, villages (and sneaky railway routes). These last were to be our port of refuge but it seems many of the lines have been replaced with buses, which do not generally welcome bikes.
We work all morning at these routes and eventually have something that does not need Giro d’Italia legs to get us over the Appenines. Even so the accommodation is still a bit sketchy (and Doris is determined to avoid any more mis-named non-resort hotels and non-view apartments). The Giro did come this way and we hope they enjoyed scampering up the hill to Padre Pio’s place. They did not have to find hotels in the hills.
We are not fixated on getting early to the Med. (For instance we consider plane from Pescara to Stansted). Wily Sid proposes a variety of ferry routes for later in the trip so we could see Sardinia and Corsica, which have been long on The List.
Tiring of the flaky WiFi and the appalling whiny EuroPop music we set out for the Paleontological Park in ‘town’. This is a very slight entertainment. Ten Euros (each!) buys entry to a park populated by animatronic dinosaurs, with English plaques with Key Facts. They roar (probably in Chinese as that is where most of the world’s dinos come from) and move. There is also a multi-media educational hall. No one is in there except a minder at her desk. The place is silent, many screens are blank. We use Google translate to ask if the exhibits are working. She tells us that it is all in Italian but will switch it on, if we insist. We insist. The video shows a story about Dino footprints. As there are occasional titles in English we guess there is also an English commentary that she does not know about. We dutifully admire the animated Thingosaurus which flaps at the end of the show.
Time for lunch and we wander into Ristorante Villa Serena. After working through a variety of languages which only one of us spoke, we finally found we could communicate with our host in French. The menu today is spaghetti with mussels. That is what we are serving this lunchtime. So we had the etc. and it was excellent. As we were leaving, around 3pm a family of about 13 came in from bambini to nonna. Italian meal times continue to mystify us.
In the afternoon we decide that the Med route directly from here has too few ports of refuge and replan to go up the Adriatic coast until we can see a better way across.
Dinner at the Osteria del Villagio has all the right ingredients, and our table ten is waiting for us. We, and most of the rest of the room, finish with a granita cum lemon sorbet in a champagne flute (we order it by pointing to one of the rapidly-emptying glasses on another table and saying “Two of those please”).
Pausing only for Doris to add to her collection of potholes, when we get home the hotel’s Ferrari Glamour Night is going well. The Ferrari in question makes fizzy wine. There is a band and the receptionist cheerfully remarks that they will keep us awake all night. No.