Final night celebration–pizza dinner in Loreto
We celebrated another memorable cycling week in Europe with a salad, bruschetta and pizza dinner at a little café with a view to the Adriatic. A bus was picking us up at 3:30 AM the next morning to take us to the Rome airport and we made it an early evening.
Fondo Leopardiano had put a big cherry on our sundae–our gelati, actually. We had cycled from the Tyrhennic to the Adriatic (most of the way) and found the climbing as strenuous as in the Alps and Pyrenees. The numerous hill towns had filled us with history and culture, the mountains and rainstorms with nature, and our mental scrapbooks were bulging with images and stories.
We looked to Rich for our Italy trip’s final evaluation: would he or wouldn’t he bestow the coveted words?
“Now THAT,” according to Rich, “was QUALITY!”
Recanati and Fondo Leopardiana were generous with their gifts to us. The orange fabric is a Fondo backpack.
The team trophy has the statue of G. Leopardi (the image that appears on our jerseys) and Recanati’s famous tower.
Dear Jack and friends:
I totally enjoyed reading this blog and cycling vicariously. Thanks to Lenny for putting me on to your annual escapades. I am an avid cyclist now languishing in the flat monotony of SW Florida and can only dream of the painful climbs and exhilarating descents of my years cycling in PA and KY.
Hope everyone had a safe return to the states.
Philip
Sey Jack! Another one for the history books! I was unable to read it daily, but finally found time to finish. You have a great way of capturing not only the ride, but the fun and overall experience of doing something like that with friends.
Glad everyone made it safely (well almost everyone but Grammaw!) But no one was seriously injured.
Look forward to seeing you sometime.
Lenny