Ravena to Urbania - Day 80

Date: November 6th, 2009
Distance: 164km
Country: Italy
Song of the Day: Coney Island - Death Cab for Cutie

Today was my last day along the Adriatic coast. I am kind of glad of this. Not that it is bad. Just that there really isn't much going on. It really must be a pretty happening place in the summer though. There are tons of hotels and camping sites all down the coast. In a way it reminds me of the beaches along the easter seaboard. But all the camping sites are closed and the hotels are shuttered. Frankly, it just looks dead.

So I got down to Remeni and started heading due south. This is where I started running into hills. Big, steep ones too. So I just muscled through until sunset. The sky was pretty clear so the sunset over the hills was quite impressive.

I was going to stay in Urbino, but I was about 30km out when the sun went down. I just figured that I would go for a bit and ask to camp in a field. This wasn't as easy as I thought. A lot of the homes were clustered around the small towns. So not really a field that you could stay in. (I think it would be a little odd to ask someone if you could camp in their front yard...) Out of town a lot of the houses were behind big gates. Others didn't have any lights on.

I did ask one family, but I don't think they got my idea. They kept telling me about a camping site down the road 12km. I didn't have the italian to tell them I wanted to stay over in their feild. So I just kept going. I almost wild camped in a field. But the spot was too close to the road. I just didn't feel right about it. So I moved on.

I actually ended up passing Urbino without finding the place I wanted to stay. I didn't know what to do, so I kept going. Just before midnight I saw a bed and breakfast place with the lights on. They were kind enough to take in some crazy cyclist at 11:30 at night. Still, I am not doing a great job of keeping to my budget. Ah well. Sometimes I just have to sit back and remember that somone else is paying for my trip.

-Dravis