BAC Le Marche - The Adriatic Coast to the Sibylline Mountains 2010

Please visit today's slide show

After a sparse breakfast buffet (lots of carbs and no protein) I left the hotel at 8:30 with Tom Leever. We cycled through town with reasonable commuter traffic. Then we reached the countryside. There was some light industry beside the road, but we eventually were riding through farm land. We were away from the coast now and traveling inland.

Our first stop was in the town of Corinaldo. Tom and I got off of our bicycles and walked through the town gates up a steep road into the main part of this very old fortified town. We wandered around the streets for a while and stopped at an outdoor cafe where we met some other people in our group. While we took a break, I drank a good, authentic Italian cappuccino.

Senigallia to Jesi - Ostra Town Hall

Leaving Corinaldo, we retraced our route down the hill, across the valley and up a moderate hill to Ostra. This is another fortified town. I rode my bicycle up the main, narrow cobblestoned street to the top to the main town square and the the old town hall. I looked around briefly and then took off down the hill where I had left Tom. He had continued on already, so I took off with Rod and Peter in my wake.

Senigallia to Jesi - Morro d'Alba

I reached Morro d’Alba just before noon. Several people from our group had taken a short cut and had reached our suggested lunch restaurant, Ristorante Dal Mago. They were able to get some cold cuts and cheese before opening time. They left while I stayed with a few others and ordered pasta. I had gnocchi with duck sauce. Others had an assortment of very interesting and very good pasta dishes. I tried to reach Ann on her cell phone to ask her to meet us there, but her phone had run out of juice.

From Morro d’Alba, I continued to ride mostly with Tom until we got to Hotel Mariani in Jesi. Our room is Spartan, but clean and functional. Wifi is free and reachable from our room.

Here is today's route.

Jesi

After cleaning up, Ann and I took a walk in the old part of town. We stopped for some really tasty gelato. I got tired of walking a went back to the hotel.

At Happy Hour, we talked about our non-cycling hobbies. Then we went to dinner. Nine of us ate on the terrace at the Gatto Matto (Crazy Cat). It is a pizzeria but it also serves other food (this is typical in Italy). Ann and I shared a salad with lettuce, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and olives. We also split a thin-crust pizza with spinach and cherry tomatoes.

At 10:00 we were ready to go to bed.