September 26, 2023
Day 20: Pesaro to Marcelli
We gotta get out of this place*
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If you zoom in on the above map directly south of Ancona, you'll see something that looks like a gorilla got hold of an Etch-a-Sketch. That's where we found ourselves on an autostrada (freeway), then turned around and went the wrong way down an offramp, crossed to an onramp, and trampled through the grass to a street. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't safe. But it was either that, or cross a long viaduct with no shoulder and cars whizzing by at 90kph or more.
It was all in an attempt to take the edge off a series of climbs. In the end, we managed to do so, but at what cost to our mental health? We've found ourselves in similar situations before, but you know, it's been a while, and I think we're experienced enough now to have gut feelings about these things. We know when to bail. In this case we thought we were on a state highway, not a national one. It turns out it was performing double duty. Fun times navigating in unfamiliar territory. When bike touring, it's almost always unfamiliar territory.
For the first 60km or so, we were flying like the wind (to be free again). It actually made us cocky. We started to talk about shooting for a longer distance today. What foolishness! Anyway, on with the day's recap.
Pesaro to Ancona was all along the beach, or very close to it. Some places were dead, others were thriving. Hotels were crumbling, or new construction was booming. We couldn't tell why there should be any difference. The beaches all looked equally inviting. I'm used to the long strip of beach between Malibu and Laguna Beach in Southern California, all equally affluent and overdeveloped.
Every so often, we'd cross from one side of the railroad tracks to the other via an underpass. It was the only elevation change we experienced.
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We stopped for lunch in Falconara Marittima, a very interesting little town that sloped up from the beach. I feel like we could have explored this place some more, but, you know, hills and all. We'd become allergic to hills with all this flatness, and as I mentioned above, that would come back to haunt us.
We had to do some serious climbing to get around Ancona. We started to see what we were missing out on by not visiting the city. However, we witnessed some amazing views that were impossible to capture on camera. Then the freeway follies ensued, which were not captured on camera for a completely different reason: we were too preoccupied with not getting killed. Then more climbing, but not as much as we would have had to deal with if I hadn't rerouted us to a larger road. Then the lovely but convoluted descent and a last couple of kilometers along the beach to the very much open Bellamare campground. Whew! What a day!
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Tomorrow will be flat, and we expect to have a nice tailwind again, so I'm planning a 90km day. To be honest, this isn't the most interesting part of Italy, but we're having fun. We'll keep pressing on to Bari, probably without a rest day. That would put us there Sunday evening. But as with our attitude today, maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. One day and one moment at a time.
* Another one of those tunes I first heard only a snippet of on a "greatest hits" advertisement, then maybe a bigger snippet in a Vietnam War movie soundtrack. I like The Animals a lot. Fun fact: Eric Burdon, the Animals' lead singer, co-founded the band War, performing and recording with them for the first three years of their existence. My favorite track from this era of War is a cover of the Stones' "Paint it Black."
Today's ride: 88 km (55 miles)
Total: 1,111 km (690 miles)
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7 months ago