We spent our second planned / third overall rest day in (or rather near) San Marino, an amazing citadel built upon a pretty damn tall and steep hill.

Our hostel was a little way out from town but our effusive hostel owner assured us we could walk there in 20 minutes.  She told us to take the quieter road behind the hostel instead of the more direct dual carriageway since it was more pleasant.

It was a good thing that Phil and I stopped for water,  kefir and wafer biscuits at the nearby supermarket because 20 minutes was only enough to take us about a fifth of the way to our eventual destination. No doubt we'd not taken the optimal route and,  in some state of confusion as to what the actual town was and where,  we pushed on in its approximate direction. After almost an hour,  we reached the start of what looked like a very long stone staircase down which other tourists were coming.  We started up it.  The temperature was (I'm not sure of the exact value) hot - at least 33 degrees and probably higher.

We made it to an empty part of the city,  passing a sign asking us to respect the silence and whispered to each other that it was abnormally bereft of tourists. Each street we passed was equally empty and while all the buildings had official plaques listing their importance and purposes they all looked unoccupied. Very odd.

We were extremely hungry at this point,  after the 80 something miles we'd cycled in from Bologna,  and also fairly dehydrated after the 75 minutes of walk up to the town.  Thinking that the actual town was just down below this ghostly perfected preserved relic of a city, we elected to continue round to what looked like a staircase down to a car park.


However,  we pushed on a little further in order to get pictures of the sky blue flags. It was there that we spotted an actual street full of real,  moving people and filled with open shops.  Sadly,  the shops are a fixture of much of San Marino. As a republic, governed separately to Italy itself,  it has no taxes on much of the consumer junk that people aspire to buy: perfumes,  handbags,  lighters, Swiss army knives,  giant waving owls and other touristy wares. I'm used to seeing maybe a parade or two of these shops in the big cities I've passed through so far but San Marino must have had several hundred of these,  throughout the entire city.

What was quite cool though was the medieval market that is being held just this week,  there were many swords and crossbows being sold.  I can't quite think of many situations where these might be useful (although several altercations during my morning Jubilee line commute did come to mknd).

In between the many shops there were several banks,  small hotels and restaurants. Essentially an entire city,  distributed over dozens of tiny steep streets,  on top of a massive hill.

Of course,  I haven't yet described what the beauty of San Marino is although it is fairly obvious.  Being so very old and on top of a hill,  it has the most picturesque views over the surrounding landscape.  Looking out in one direction you can see the sea.  In another,  rolling fields that meet a blue-grey summer haze. The others show the rest of the country of San Marino - many red topped houses and all the busy,  windy roads up to the hill (and further still to parts of actual Italy). The stone built city itself is in pristine condition, and although all the touristy shops somewhat marr photos of the city structures,  generally it is quite pretty.

We took our dinner at the highest altitude restaurant with a good view that we could find called Nido del Falco. The food was average,  the service lacking and the fellow diners noisy but the view more than made up for it.

On our way out,  we stopped for a quick glance at a show that was being put on by a local professional ballet group (amongst other acts). Surprisingly this was possibly only the second ballet performance I had seen,  the first being The Nutcracker about 15 years ago. I quite enjoyed it,  particularly for the excellent choice of music - although a live orchestra would have helped tremendously!

We also discovered a cable car that would take us down to at least the beginning of the steps.  Without hesitation we paid the €2.80 fare. A shortcut back to the hotel helped us get back in about 20 minutes - albeit not using the 'more pleasant' road.

The next day we woke up just in time for breakfast. I thought we'd missed the good stuff because,  besides some basic cornflakes and some melba toast,  there was a tray with crumbs on it that looked like it once contained pastries. (It turns out this was just white bread this morning,  so I don't feel like I lost out much...)

After a marathon morning of blogging,  we headed back to the city via the New York Bakery,  an Italian American style bakery.  I needed something to take with my medication and they had some giant brownies on display so I asked for two to takeaway (Phil also wanted one). The lady pointed to a large poster on the wall showing an icecream scoop on top of a brownie covered in chocolate sauce and said "if you eat them here we serve them like that".  That was good enough to get us to stay for a short while!

Taking the cable car up into the city,  we toured one of the towers,  a couple of museums,  had a piadina (a famous local sandwich) and went looking for San Marino minted Euros. The piadina is,  as far as I can work out,  just a wrap but sliced and folded half-ways instead of rolled up. Still,  it was simple and delicious,  with soft cheese and rocket.  We had fries too,  which was a mistake but helped bump up our carb intake.

We visited two museums,  one which was paid for - the Museo de San Francesco,  and the free Museo di Stati. The Museo de San Francesco was fairly uninteresting,  containing mainly biblical paintings of the saint. I normally get quite bored in overly religious museums. The Museo di Stati was better - containing many artifacts and other 'old things'. I found their collection of pots and vases quite amusing - will bored teenagers be trudging around museums looking at perfectly preserved Tupperware in a few hundred years?

I was also convinced that there was a way to get a rare San Marino minted Euro coin without paying the outrageous prices that the souvenir shops asked.  After all,  an officially minted coin should exchange at 1 to 1, especially if minted this year! I first attempted to ask a local bank and after some fun going through an elaborate circular security scanner,  they told me that they didn't have any but to try an office nearby. Sure enough,  the office nearby was the official dispenser of San Marino stamps and coins and two very bored looking employees glanced up at me when I entered. After trying and failing to work out what my options were from the display,  I asked them and they said for €11 I could get an entire set of the 2013 coins.  Still not content,  I asked if it was possible to get just one coin and she nodded,  pulling out a bag full of San Marino 1 and 2 Euro coins. I broke an ordinary €5 note and went on my way.

A brief gelato later (this was surprisingly difficult to find - most ice cream sold in San Marino appears to be of the more pedestrian factory made variety),  we headed back down in the cable car to avoid the incoming thunderstorm. (My cycling shoes are just about ok to walk in but I can imagine a slippery demise lay ahead of any attempt to walk down wet San Marino avenues.)

I managed to redo my bar tape quickly before rushing upstairs to take a call with the CPCC group at Berkeley who I'm doing my Master's capstone project with. Sadly the wifi was down and the staff member there refused to accept it was broken because her computer (connected by a cable) was still working. She told us to ask the bar staff in ten minutes after her shift ended...useless. Phil and I waited for her to leave and then snuck into reception to power cycle the router,  which thankfully fixed the connection.

Dinner was at a bizarrely formal hotel restaurant across the dual carriageway from our hostel. We sat down on the white silk covered chairs and we're surrounded by couples and groups of couples. Somewhat out of place in our sweaty off-the-bike wear,  we placated ourselves by considering the alternatives - a kebab shop that operated out of the bar underneath our hostel or a McDonald's.

After ordering,  they gave us a glass of sparkling wine each and some sort of strange fish and cheese pre-starter dish which I sadly had to decline.  We didn't get charged for these.  I elected for a gnocchi and vegetable dish which was both tasty and amazingly filling (although not enough to stop me finishing a pack of Ringo biscuits back at the hostel later).

This morning we managed to get to breakfast early enough to get some toast.  The descent out of San Marino was a little slow - plenty of traffic lights and other vehicles trying to overtake meant it was too dangerous to take it at the same pace as the Alps. Pretty soon though we hit the coastal road which was very potholed and full of cars pulling out,  turning in and trying to overtake. Soon though it got quieter as we passed a lengthy stretch of road alongside the beach where maybe a thousand cars were parked.

The coastal road was fairly quick and we made it to Falconara Marottima for lunch in good time. Besides picking up new brake shoes for Phil's rear brake to replace the wood screw currently holding in,  overtaking a little Piaggio motor rickshaw and having a close call with an idiot Toyota Yaris driver, the ride was uneventful.

Lunch was a phenomenal amount of spaghetti with tomato sauce followed by a small gelato. This was probably not optimal riding food because I had the taste of both along with some sour bile at the back of my mouth as we started the climb out of Ancona and over the hills to Numana where we are staying with night.

The climb revealing some worrying noises coming from my bike when under heavy pedalling load. A consistent creak with each pedal stroke suggest either the bottom bracket,  pedals or cranks are worn. I need to investigate this further.

Still, we arrived quickly to Numana, after 82.60 miles at an average of 16.1 mph over 5.06.30 hours.

With plenty of time in Numana,  we've been enjoying the beach along with the other thousand Italians who are here. I suspect most are here just for the weekend - certainly this is the single most expensive hotel we are staying in. Tomorrow we cycle to Pescara for more beach and sun!