BAC Le Marche

May 30 – Riccione Loop to San Marino

Riccione - Paulo and our Group

We had the breakfast buffet again this morning. Our ride start was at 8:30. The loop today was to the independent republic state of San Marino. Paolo met our group outside of the hotel and led us through the city. At the traffic circle near the yellow posts, we paused so that we could break the group by pace. Paolo led the faster group while the slower folks were on their own.

The first part of the ride retraced the end of yesterday’s route. Serious climbing began soon. Most of the grades were moderate but we had some that kicked up to 10% or more. I used my lowest gear in a few places.

San Marino

At the top of the climb, we reached San Marino. This is an independent republic surrounded by Italy. It’s been that way for several centuries after defending itself from various foes including the Vatican. According to Wikipedia, San Marino is the oldest recorded sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world, having been founded on 3 September 301 by stonecutter Marinus of Rab. I locked my bicycle to a post and climbed up to San Marino’s highest point – a castle-like structure on the edge of a cliff. There was a long drop down. It made me dizzy.

I worked my way down from the top to my bicycle passing many tourist shops and cafes. There were lots of visitors there. I stopped in a small cafe to get a refill of tap water for one of my water bottles. The lady that filled it was very nice and friendly. I also met Richard, Carolyn and Dave, three of my co-riders who were having cappuccino at a bar.

I left San Marino and began a rapid descent. I thought that I was following all of the cue sheet instructions, but I was going so fast that I missed one. I had to turn around and go back straight up the steep hill for a couple of KMs. Back on route, I continued back to Hotel Sarti stopping once at the roadside for a snack of piccolo panini and a banana.

I showered, put on my shorts (it was warm) and dropped my cycling clothes into the laundry bin. Our room rate includes washing our cycling clothes. We turn them in by 5:00 and they are hanging on our door before we go to bed. After that, I had the cyclist’s lunch. Ann showed up as I was eating. She and Carol had driven up to San Marino. No beach time today, but she did take a swim in the hotel’s pool.

Here is today's route.

We had a Happy Hour at 6:00. Tonight’s agenda was getting our Italian name from Julie and talking about our immediate family. We also had a route wrap about tomorrow’s ride.

Dinner at 7:30 had the usual delicious antipasti bar. For our first course, I had pasta with clams. Ann had cannelloni. Our main course was guinea hen. Dolce was a buffet of sweets and crepes.

At 9:40 and we did some prelinary packing and got ready for bed. Tomorrow we will be in a new hotel.