Cesenatico to Torre Pedrera by way of Santarcangelo: - more festivals: a Fiera and a Children's Fitness Festival - Italy Bound with our Recumbent Tandem - CycleBlaze
Cesenatico to Torre Pedrera by way of Santarcangelo: - more festivals: a Fiera and a Children's Fitness Festival
We camped at Cesenatico last night and were grateful that this vast campground was still open for business. We had ridden along miles of beach towns and countless campgrounds along the Adriatic - all of which were closed for the season. The communities felt like ghost towns - hotels literally boarded up and no commerce still active. This seems strange to us as the weather is still quite nice and as a tourist, I would prefer to come to the coast when it is less busy. Once again, the mosquitoes at camp were almost our undoing, but we persevered. We have become pretty adept at getting in to the tent quickly, but somehow a few got in to our tent and we were both itchy and sore by morning.
Today was an incredibly full day. We toured Cesenatico, chanced upon the museum of its native son and cycling star - Marco Pantini, had fun at festivals: a Fiera (autumn festival) in Santarcangelo and a Children's festival. Then as afternoon was progressing, we were unable to find camping in the area - so we backtracked to the coast to a campground near Rimini. When we arrived, the owner said that we were lucky as she was closing early and this would be the last night of the season. Again, mosquitoes were a problem. Nonetheless, the blustery sea was just across the road and the views and beach werequite beautiful. We understand the reason tourists take over this area in the summer. For some reason, the pictures on today's journal are out of order and impossible to correct. We give up - enjoy.
After leaving the campground, we were delighted to discover the very pretty and charming fishing town of Cesenatico.
This canal runs through the centre of the village to the sea. The "floating" Marine Museum is at one end and working fishing boats are closest to the sea.The blue and yellow boat is the ferry that people use to get across the narrow canal.
The sight is quite striking when you come upon the canal and see the reflective beauty of the canal with a floating museum of restored boats bordered by historic buildings along each side. Cesenatico was established in 1302. We didn't realize until later that Leonardo da Vinci had surveyed and designed this canal area at the request of Cesare Borgia.
Clearly our Italian skills need improvement - we almost didn't go in to this local community theatre where the mushroom exhibit is. We thought it as a public bathroom!
We could hear a loud slapping sound and we discovered that this man was slicing mortadella from this huge roll and would slap it with the knife between slices. A good strategy for attracting customers.
Earlier in the day, we saw this man's bicycle shop attached to his house. What a lucky find his shop was. This man builds his own line of bikes and had an interesting shop. Even though it was siesta time, he came out and sold (and installed) new grips for Barry's handlebar.
Today has been full of wonderful surprises - finding a builder/designer of bikes, arriving in a city immersed in a fall festival and then this town where a Fitness Festival for kids had taken over the centre of town. No cars allowed - only pedestrians and bikes.
Our tent and bike drew many curious stares and interest. The campground is a close knit community of families who have known each other for years. Most people were there to winterized and close down their caravans for the season.Being close to the beach, sand is everywhere.
Most of the campground is home to permanent trailers that have landscaped yards and extra buildings. There were only a few overnighters like us and we were the only cyclists camping here.
This gadget works! Press the button and hold it on a bug bite for 30 seconds. It gets quite hot and somehow calms down the itching. Don't leave home without it...and definitely bring it to Italy at this time of year!!
We were grateful to stay here - it is very large and self sufficient, it is like it is a village with a supermarket, hardware store, restaurant, hair salon, etc. It borders on the Adriatic - we liked it here. Especially since it is off season and quiet.
