Italian Holiday

Lugo   -  Miramare        100.1(Mustn’t forget the .1)kms      219’ascent

Having spent some time discussing between ourselves the merits or otherwise of various routes and been unable to come to any sensible conclusion as we had insufficient information. The hotel owner was much better informed and marked out a  route avoiding all the busy roads. It worked a treat and we soon found ourselves in Cervia. Now we could start our journey down the coast. We did!

The coastal belt in this part of Italy is particularly narrow, thus the streets follow the same pattern. They are made even narrower by rows of parked cars, people on bikes and pedestrians.  To be fair, the cars do abide by a highway code of sorts, but the same cannot be said for either bikers or pedestrians. Pavements –pah!  One way streets- pah! Traffic lights – pah! In addition to weaving our way around wobbling cyclists and strolling pedestrians, the road itself followed a meandering route in, over and around the railway line. By 4.30 our concentration levels were beginning to wither so we thought to seek accommodation for the night. Ha,ha,ha. We were, until then, blissfully unaware of the fact that this weekend, as well as being August, was also a very special holiday weekend when every good Italian was out to strut his stuff. For three hours we tried to find a place to lay our increasingly weary heads. For three hours we continued along the coast so far that we ran out of map but by keeping the sea to our left we just followed the endless line of full hotels! By now we were using lights on the bikes and envisaging, without much enthusiasm, a night on the beach.  One last try of a very expensive looking hotel and bingo (well sort of). Not a room in a hotel, but a suite at a price I am not prepared to disclose. Suffice to say, we enjoyed a Jacuzzi and a four poster bed! By midnight we were washed and fed and just about rehydrated and exhausted. This holiday goes on for another two days! Soldier on.