MAY 18, 2001  FRIDAY

Painting by Don Myrah Sr.

Well, our time here in Porto Recanati is drawing to a close.  We have been scouting out the routes out of town, and I think we have pretty well settled the plan.  We will be leaving Monday.  Saturday we are going down the coast to see the prologue of the famous bike race, Giro dItalia.

On our bike rides we usually do about 17k/hour.  That is a pretty comfortable speed for meabout 12 miles an hour or so.  And, we have our little walkie-talkie radios so we can keep in touch in case we get separated.   We usually stay together, but every now and then I will look up and Don is whooshing off down the road.  He has sped up to 30k/hour.  When I asked him why he does this sometimes, he told me that he just goes into a zone, and imagines he and Marco Pantani (the famous Italian bike racer) are racing each other through the countryside, competing in the Giro dItalia, and he goes sailing down the road.   One afternoon I was serenely riding down the road and all of a sudden, WHOOSH!  There went two riders in fancy Mapei team jerseys, and a third rider in a bright blue and white Hawaiian print jersey (Hey! Don has one just like that), whizzing by me.  Off to the races he goes!

I am doing fine with the money exchange and grocery shopping.  There is very little beef to be found here, perhaps because of the mad cow disease problems in Britain.  One day when I was shopping I discovered, in an embarrassing way, that they charge for bags.  I had purchased a large quantity of goods, and usually the clerk would reach under her counter and get out some bags along with the groceries.  This time she didnt do it right away, and when she started to check the next person, she put a bag out for him.  So I took the bag with the idea that she could give the guy another bag, no sweat.  Well, he went into quite a tizzy, talking Italian a mile a minute to the clerk.  She just laughed and shook her head and gave him another bag.  It was then that I realized that it was necessary to ask for a bag, and you are charged 100 lire per bag.  I looked at my other receipts when I got home, and sure enough, there it was, busta 100, on my receipts.  So now I take my bags with me.

The Italian ladies all go shopping every morning.  Although the girls and younger women wear jeans or slacks (I have never seen an Italian woman in shorts! Well, except models on tv.), any woman over about 35 wears a blouse and woolen skirt, either straight or pleated, with nylon stockings and sensible leather shoes.  Often they wear a blazer jacket too, even when it is warm.  Each morning they put on their wool outfit and nylons and get on their bicycle and dwaddle off to the market.  I must really look a sight to them, with my bike shorts, t shirt and helmet. But, I forgot my black wool suit for grocery shopping!  Silly me.

In the evening Don watches tv.  Here is his schedule:

5pm-7:30pm News and weather.  Usually we can make out the news by watching the visuals.  Sometimes I look up a word in my English-Italian dictionary.  We have found that each channel has a different outlook for the weather, though.  And their reports are so different, no trend can be detected.  So, if  rain is predicted on one channel, we just change to another.

7:30-8:30 Popeye the Sailor Man hour, in Italian, of course. (you can tell how desperate he is getting if he is watching cartoons.)

8:30-9:30 Hot pants quiz show.  This show has a bevy of young girls in red sequined hot pants who stand around and clap every now and then.  There must be 10-12 of them, and that is all they do, stand around in back of the emcee and clap once in awhile.  Don says he watches this program because it is very educational and he is learning Italian and important Italian facts.  When they have a big winner on this show the hot pants girls put on sequined thongs and wiggle their bottoms, so Don roots hard for the contestants to win often.

9:30-10:30 Political satire show, with two crazy emcees who put on hippie wigsone long blond and the other a huge afro--and sing and dance with each other for 10 minutes every night at the start of the show.  But then the two Daisy Dukes come out and walk around in spiked heels and short shorts on top of the desk, and make little comments and talk to the emcees for the rest of the program.  In case you dont remember the Dukes of Hazzard, Daisy is the comely sister who wears very short cut-offs.

Both of these shows are sponsored by Karlo, which is a product to combat cellulite.  Also, another sponsor advertises an electro-shock muscle stimulator, to get your body toned.  Then there is the ad where the smart, slim woman sees a yummy chocolate cake in a bakery window and is tempted.  She squirms and pushes herself sensually up to the window, moaning in orgasmic anticipation, and in the end she has a piece of cake and pops a pill to counteract the calories.  I can just imagine all of those woolen suited women I see in the grocery store, who are about 5 tall and weigh about 175, watching these shows and trying the Karlo, muscle stimulator and pills in hopes of growing 10 inches and dropping 50 pounds with these products.

I can only take about ½ hour of news, and sometimes I watch a few Popeye cartoons, and then I go in another room and read a book.  I am working my way through my book supply so I dont have to drag them on my bike over the mountain range.  The good thing is, I only have one book left to carry, the bad thing is, I only have one book left to read and two weeks to entertain myself. 
 

The other day we took the train from Porto Recanati to Tolentino, via Civitanova.  Every time we have gone into the train station, the little man behind the window either runs away into the back room or shuts down his window, so I never can ask questions.  However, we have been able to make out the schedules with materials posted on the wall.  There is a slick machine that dispenses tickets too.  You can push the buttons for where you are starting from and where you want to go, and it will take your money and issue you tickets and a credit slip for your change.  So, we bought our tickets to Tolentino that way.  But I wanted to also pay for transporting our bikes, and the machine would not accommodate that, so I turned around to buy them from the stationmaster, and, as usual, he saw me and

immediately slammed the metal shutter down over the window.   But, this time I was not going to let him get out of it so easily.  I went out the door and caught him leaving his office, and in my broken Italian I asked him about buying tickets for the bikes.  He confirmed that, yes, we did need tickets for our bikes and then he gave me that universal throw up the hands what can I do gesture.  My office is closed, what can I do?, he gestured.  This, even though the time was within the posted office hours.

Well, I fretted and worried about getting in trouble for not having paid for our bikes, but Don kept telling me to relax, it would be ok.  We got on the train with our bikes, and sure enough, the conductor came along to check our tickets, and no tickets for the bikes, but he chattered out a reel of Italian, lifted his eyebrow, shrugged his shoulders, and went on his way.  We had to change trains in Civitanova, and go through the same thing with the next conductor, but they didnt throw us off the train or call the Carabinieri to put us in jail.  Don keeps telling me that I just worry too much about following the rules.  His solution when he gets in a jam is to just throw up his hands, a la the stationmaster, and see what happens.  He usually comes up roses.  So I just stick with him, but I cross my fingers and toes and shut my eyes for the ride sometimes.

Well, there are a few observations on our doings for the last few weeks.  Tomorrow we take the train south to see the Giro prologue, and then Monday morning we are off on our bike trip across Italy. 

Thanks for your interest in our travels. Links to other reports:      Page 1     Siena                                            Page 2     Roma                                            Page 3     Porto Recanati                                            Page 4     Essay on Italian Television                                            Page 5     Giro d'Italia                                            Page 6     Assisi & Montefalco                                            Page 7     Todi, Etruscan Pottery, Giro d'Italia                                            Page 8     Orvieto, Missed the last Tram  down,                                                                                                           Page 9      iChiari,  Castiglione de Lago, Caldo??                                                                                               Page10     Fiesole, Florence                                            Page 11   The Perfect Bicycle Ride                                            Page 12    Florence, Uffizi, Fiesole                                            Page 13   CinqueTerre                                                                                            Page  14  Riomaggiore, Monterossa, Vernazza,                                             Page  15  Porto Venere, Lord Byron, Le Grazie            Link to Don's Art Work should work now.                                          Don's Art Work on France and Truckee            Email to Don & Geralynn            All pictures and text are copyright of Don & Geralynn Myrah Sr  2001.