Sat., September 20th, On the "Panoramica" - 35 km

This morning we said goodbye to our lovely Servas host in Verseba outside of Rimini (home of Fellini, by the way). Our goal today is to take our fully loaded tandem on the train south from Rimini to Pesaro and then ride north along what is called the Panoramica a cliffside ride along the Adriatic.

We are forewarned that we must carry our bike up and down steps at the train station (the number of these steps at each station will be different). Then we must quickly decide which end of the train has the bicycle loading car. All of our years of lifting weights (and doing aerobics paid off) as we were able to accomplish both. Fortunately we poised the bike away from pedestrian traffic on the platform - midway, and Elaine ran ahead of Mauny to direct him to the proper car to store our bike. No car was marked so we chose our own. Getting the bike up the three stairs with a narrow door on the train was the most challenging aspect of this journey. However, in the end, we had the whole car to ourselves and no conductor even checked our tickets. Then we had to hurriedly get the bike off the train, before it left for the next stop after Pesaro. Our hearts were pumping.

Finally in Pesaro and after some discussions with a charismatic taxi driver (we think), we made our way to the entrance of the Panoramica. About mid-way we stopped at a recommended restaurant (La Rupe) with a view in a tiny old town on a hill. In addition to eating lunch there, we walked around the town and took some pictures. The sun was breaking through clouds at last.

Then we rode on to Cattolica where we were going to stay with another Servas host for the night. After meandering around a couple seaside towns, we found our way to Cattolica.

Our host told us she lived in a hotel (Hotel Kurstaal). We were pleasantly surprised at our wonderful accomodations. They live in a penthouse at the top of a seemingly very high end hotel. We were given our own two rooms with a bath (and kitchen if we so chose to use it). We had a wonderful view of the plaza where a military band played later in the evening and we watched a fountain dance to music being played on the square. We were actually greeted by the mother of our host, who showed us the garage where we could store our bike and then took us our room and told us that our host, Georgia Galanti, a graphic artist, would be arriving around 6:30 and we would have dinner at 7:00. Georgia arrived as expected, and tooke us for a walk around the pristine town and then to her parents home (the penthouse) for dinner. Apparently, Georgia is working on a home now in the Panaramica and these are her digs in the interim. Her husband is an actor, but was travelling. She had a very charming 6 year old son, appropriately named Leonardo. After a lovely dinner prepared by Sandra, at the end of which we had homemade limencello in frozen ice cups (I must buy some before leaving Italy--Sandra has provided the recipe), Sandra and Georgia went to an art opening in another town. The opening was for a touring theatre troupe and Georgia had created all the promo for it. Because we were leaving early in the morning, we could not go. You just cannot do anything. So Mauny and I retired to our room and watched TV.