how i probably sound in Italian.

l'Adriatico mi ha conquistato il cuore

The Adriatic has captured my heart. 

Riding along it on the bike for 90 minutes, wading in it, the breeze, watching people with tiny nets in the shallows looking to catch tiny shellfish, just like their ancestors have since the Neolithic. The interference patterns from the breakwaters, where interlocking square waves mesmerize me as they break against my shins. The cool swim in the depths. The nut-brown Italian sun worshippers. The fit young shirtless men delivering pallets of water to seaside restaurants. The RV park model campgrounds on the beach. The places where the varied depths of the sea give you 5 distinct colors of blue. Seafood fresh every day. 

I'm hooked. 

I'd live a year here if I could legally, this family hotel with the kind hosts and the sea view. Bet I could bargain for $1000 Euros per month rent. Easy bus to train to anywhere else for day trips. 

At dawn I had my new love all to myself. 

dawn over Adriatic

travel day

A short train ride to Pesaro, then a bus back down the coast a few miles to a resort hotel. I'll do no historical sightseeing there, but I plan to swim and bike and eat seafood every day. 

Having struggles with banks. It's not impossible I'll have to come back a bit early, 2-3 weeks if I can't get access again. Without the ability to phone or get text codes, if they ignore the pre-travel instructions, not much I can do from hereI worked very hard to set up triple redundancy... Now Im regretting not carrying my biz credit card too. Quadruple redundancy is needed....or better banks!

Anyway, trying to not stress over it now. I'm paid through June 22 at apartments. I'll start panicking in 2 weeks. 

Easy day

Wandering around the neighborhood. Trying to limit stairs to less than 100 today. Right now, sitting in the shade enjoying park flowers.

Ancona archeology museum

Amazing place. It's set up in time order, from Paleolithic to Neolithic to Bronze Age, finishing with Roman times. I spent 4 hours there and only left because my brain was full. Also my hips ached after 3 days of stairs. 

Hand tools

Soon after the glaciers retreated, the flintknapping got more refined 

then... Tragedy. Combination of grain agricultural and starting to bang on cuprous rocks, and it all leads up to wars and class differences and many awful things. I wanted to go back and say, stop and think this through, guys!

Soon after, there's jewelry. For the ruling class at least

550 BCE shield disc. Gorgeous work. 2 horsemen and a victim.

shocked at the dates. 500 BCE and the whole pantheon of Roman gods is already in place. There's not a Roman empire yet. Also, shocked the redware came this early.

Celtic influence dipped down just this far South. These grave goods, gold leaf laurel wreaths, are either miraculously preserved, or some conservator did amazing work over months to get them back to this level. Like tinsel, but pure gold.

An ostraca. Writing from 120 BCE. With the help of AI, i got a translation. Basically  "famous girl... male concubine, whose legs spread to... " Is it gossip, a love note, an ad for a brothel? We can't know.  You can see "concubinus" right there.

fantastically fine mosaic of a hunting scene. Upside down, Sorry. I was so tired by this point, didn't know up from down.

€5. Best museum value in the nation, I bet. 

I am soooo tired. Travel tomorrow.

ancona day 2

Up to the tippy top of town via many stairs. 

to a church, guarded by stone lions

Sun rises 

Looking out over the harbor 

Down to an amphitheater, being excavated still

with apartments built right on it! 

Day 1 Ancona.

A major port on the Adriatic coast. 

mostly commercial, but 1 cruise ship

with old fortresses. This one us a big pentagonal shape.

monuments to the Unification 

statues of emperors (Trajan here)

and lots of hills and steps

clothes

If I had it all to do over, I'd wear one outfit, with pajamas serving as underlayer, pack 1 outfit, so have very light bags to start, and buy here at street fairs. Italian manufacturers, 5-10€ per piece. A light dress or skirt, lightweight pants, a couple tops. I'd blend in better, and maybe the beggars would lay off. (I'm much less impressed with Italian men than I was. Women are great here, but a lot of men are just losers.) For $50, I'd have a full wardrobe.

Lots of other stuff for sale. Cheap!

travel day

The distance isn't far, but the train is regional and slow, with many stops. A half hour walk loaded with bags to get to B&B at 5 ish. 

But the destination is Ancona, a place on the sea with several cool (and free) things to see, and a good archeology museum. Looking forward to my 3 full days there. 

The highlight of Foggia was the B&B, the nonna there who was so kind, and the large kitchen that made my daily food spend less than $5. 

I'm in my Ancona room. Wonderful! And how nice after a schlep through a traffic tunnel and then uphill, on Sunday when markets are closed, to have enough food sitting there to survive an evening. I also had cheese with me. 

I'm in love. With the Adriatic Sea from Termoli north. 4, 5 colors of blue. I'm going to swim in it later this week! 

I'll get photos. They don't work through train windows. 

crazy day

Train strike... early bus, which honestly is better than the train. Usb port that works and pretty view makes it pleasant.

I'm in Foggia. Within an hour of getting here, a man propositioned me. Grossly, then he tried to grab my tit. I punched him and used all 3 foul insults I know in Italiano. As he hurried away, I had to switch to English. 

So that was new.

Went to a big grocery 8 minutes from my very nice B&B. 

Salami, mortadella, fresh romano (like a nutty jack), artichoke hearts, beautiful tomatoes,  sugar-free yogurt, water, rolls, and two tiny pastries for the mom of my host, who was patient and kind to me. Enough food for 3 days, less than €12.  I keep it in a shared fridge for 2 guests. You can eat well and cheaply here, at home.

Lunch, halfway through. Mama gave me the two weird bread stick things. Dryer than dry. Molto secco. They like such things in Italia. 

Alberobello and Matera

A full day trip to these two sites. Alberobello is famous for trulli, these cute houses with conical roofs

The history is interesting. This was a way to avoid property taxes. The walls are dry stone masonry. A rider would come calling out the warning the tax collector was coming. Everyone leapt up and dismantled their homes.  By the time he arrived, nothing to tax. 

After a few more pix, 

I became more interested in the masonry, all over town. They are experts at it!

There are trulli out to 30 miles from town, on farms. And the most productive hay fields you ever saw. I guess in this warm Mediterranean climate, they get 3-4 cuttings per year.

Lunch at a lovely shaded park near a church, cheese and apple I brought along. Finding a shaded bench it Italy is nigh-on impossible. 

Then onto Matera. It's original claim to fame is its poverty, and how people lived in caves there (more boondocking than boondocking) until the 1960s. Its new claim to fame is it was used for a Daniel Craig Bond film. As a result of that tourism, it's not so poor now. 

not my shot. Wikimedia.

My favorite thing I found in Matera. Antonio Gramsci was a philospher and ground-breaking linguist, whom I read a lot of (in translation) in grad school. He wrote thousands of pages when imprisoned by the facists. Prison killed him, one of the finest Italian minds since Leonardo 

Castello Tramontano, 1500s. Never finished, as the despot building it was assassinated by the locals.

day 3 Bari

My easy day this week. Wandered around, found a rotisseria, ate paprika chicken in a piazza. Got splattered with confetti from a ? wedding party? Happy people, in any case. Wandered some more. Bought a €1 italiano romance, used, for more practice, at a newsstand. Functioned entirely in Italiano except with the Polish family I shared breakfast with. Back home at 1:30 to relax and prepare for big day tomorrow.

fountain where I picnicked with chicken.