Pescara

April 27, 2025

For several days I've been priming Rachael for our last ride in the south, telling her that our ride to Pescara would be a snap - fifteen flat, pleasant miles along the coast, bike paths nearly the whole way, fair weather. The easiest travel day of the tour so far.

We stayed around our Airbnb until nearly the checkout time of 10:30, not wanting to get in to Pescara too early for lunch at Margherita, the pizza/pasta restaurant Rachael picked out for us. We figured we'd arrive about noon, I'd have pasta and Rachael pizza and then we'd check in at our lodging at the G Hotel, just two blocks from the train station where we'll leave for Ventemiglia tomorrow. After that Rachael plans a walk along the coast while I walk down to the port and hope to spot a last bird or two before we leave the south.

It went nothing like that. I got the part about it being fifteen miles, and almost entirely a flat stretch along the coast, but that was about it. In actuality this was our slowest ride of the tour, and we averaged only 8 mph; and we weren't seated for lunch until 2:30 and felt lucky to have gotten a table then. Plans for an afternoon hike and a birding excursion were reduced to a short end of day excursion for gelato and a view of the fantastic pedestrian/bike bridge across the mouth of the Pescara River.

So what happened? First off, it's not entirely flat. There's first a descent and climb over the headland north of town to be executed - a climb steep enough that it warrants some push work to get over the top.

Image not found :( — Horse chestnuts are out!

Finally we're up, hop back on the bikes, and then enjoy a screaming descent to the sea. And before long we come to the one short unpaved stretch I forgot to mention to Rachael, a stretch I should have looked at more closely myself because then I might have noted that it's a beach walk on the sand.

Pushing our bikes through two miles of soft sand doesn't sound like the right plan, so we take the only alternative - two miles back with our old frenemy the SS16, which unfortunately presents us with its worst face here - narrow, busy, and essentially zero shoulder. Fortunately we survive that and are relieved to come to the exit and the start of the bike path I'd imagined.

Except it's not the bike path I'd imagined, because it's a shared bike/walker/scooter/dog/stroller path that is so clogged on this lovely sunny afternoon that when we're on it weaving through obstacles we're barely moving at walking speed ourselves so we alternate with spells like that with ones when we get out in the street duking it out with the cars.

For the most part none of this felt worth stopping and breaking out the camera for, so let's just get the feel for the experience from the front of Rachael's handlebars:

(Note: you get to see the bridge video twice because it's really cool, but also because I placed it in the wrong spot the first time and now it won't budge.)

Sound track: Paula e Benito, by Anat Cohen

This pull-off for a break to admire the Monumento ai Caduto del Mare was worth a few shots though.

All things come to an end though and eventually we come to Pescara and leave the madness of the bikepath. We're still on a bike path for the last mile or two, but it's much easier to manage and is preceded by the graceful, stylish bridge over the mouth of the Pescara River. It's a split bridge at the top, with one branch for bicycles and the other for foot traffic. After a stiff climb to the top there's congestion where everyone stops to admire the views and break out the camera. It's here that we strike up an extended conversation with Lila, who walks over to chat with us.

Lila is a native of Pescara, is fluent in English, and interested to hear we are ?from America and of our current travel plans. She's a professional herself, an engineer, and looking forward to when she can retire and travel more herself. She tells us of her brother that works in Austin, and of her upcoming knee surgery that will keep her off her bike and her other love, rollerblading; and she expresses her envy for us having cycling as something we share because her husband prefers water sports instead.

In Pescara, proudly presenting my prednisone profile.

Sound track: Juvenescence, by Jasmin Williams

So all of that holds us up, and we don't arrive at Margherita Pizzaria until one. And when we do we're turned away because they're fully booked - something Rachael comes back to glumly inform me after I've already started unloading the bikes and locking them together. So I go back and take a second shot, asking if a later seating might be possible. She thinks a second, offers 2:30 as a possibility, and takes down my name.

Our room is ready when we arrive at the G Hotel, so we enjoy a relaxed hour in our spacious room before walking back to the pizzeria, arriving precisely at 2:30. Our table isn't quite ready yet, so an apologetic waiter brings us a pair of classes and a bottle of aperitif to enjoy while we wait. He's got the first one half-poured before I can stop him, but we appreciate the gesture.

Finally we're seated, and enjoy a good lunch that comes with a few disappointments. One is that Rachael can't have the pizza she was looking forward to, one she planned to take back half of to eat on the train tomorrow. In fact, in the south at least pizzas aren't available until evening at restaurants like this with wood-fired ovens. They don't even fire up the ovens in the afternoon.

Instead, she has tagliatelle with guanciale (and takes half of that away), and I have potato gnocchi with pancetta. A fine meal, and we walk back to our room full and happy, stopping to take snaps of the colorful city along the way.

Oh, the other negative - it's very breezy at the table we're seated at and Rachael's too cold. She didn't bring a coat so I lend her my Pendleton., which looks OK on her but not quite as good on her as the blue one.

Rachael's returning from a scoping excursion to see if the gelateria serves pistachio - and it does!

This part of Pescara is quite interesting and attractive.

All of the murals along this wall have a fruit and vegetable theme. I wonder if this is the back wall of a public market.

I especially like this one. Globes galore!

Nice period decor in Gatsby's. Now that I see it I wish we'd given it a try instead.

As we near our hotel we stop to admire the city skyline reflected in the windows of the train station.

And finally there's this striking tree: a Paulonia, or Empress Tree - so named because it was named after Anna Pavlovna, Queen consort of the Netherlands and the daughter of a Russian czar. It's a fascinating tree of the orient, with enough surprises that it's worth reading the Wikipedia overview. My favorite fact though was that in the past groves of this tree could be found in western port cities because its pods were used as packing materials - essentially like styrofoam packing peanuts, I suppose; and groves would sprout where they were dumped at the receiving port.

Interesting mirrors and reflections in our hotel room! It took awhile to make out where all the reflections were coming in from.

Finally we went back out at 6:30 for our two missions - to the gelateria, and then the longer walk down to the river so I could get a side view of the bridge and maybe see a last new bird or two before heading north to our next minitour, along the French/Italian riviera.

The Santuario della Divina Misericordia.

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Today's ride: 17 miles (27 km)
Total: 399 miles (642 km)

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