And on to Macerata...

Did you know that you have to register with the Italian police now to access the internet??  Apparently ever since the bombing in Milan last year they require any internet provider, such as a cafe or hotel, to register who is given access on any given day.  

Which cuts down on the number of wireless hotspots around let me tell you.

I made it on down to Macerata yesterday.  Got off to a rocky start.  Locked myself out of my hotel room.  Got back in, had breakfast, packed up and went on over to the train station.  Wandered around looking for where the machines were where I could get my tickets.  Note that wandering around the trainstation (up and down stairs) is non trivial when you are pulling a suitcase with the bike in it, have something like 50lbs on your back and one more bag in hand which is heavy too.  Too much stuff.  But then I'm going to be here for 2&1/2 months and I had to bring some drafting supplies and all the gear for the bike.  

Anyhow, I find the machines.  I thought that all you needed to do was stick in the credit card you bought the tickets well.  But not so.  You need to punch in the code sequence that was emailed to you.  Which I didn't print out.  But I have a little time left, so I head back to the hotel to pull up the email.  When I get there I discover that I'd actually left my computer behind in the room.  So it was a good thing I came back anyhow.  And then, when I fire up the computer, I discover that the screen has been damaged.  It seems that the new battery that I bought before I left, which was larger and different shaped than the ones I had before, added more stress to the computer frame in the pack while traveling and flexed the lcd display just a little too much.  So now I have a bunch of colored stripey things running down  the middle of my display.  A real bummer. 

But I got the computer, got the code, got the tickets, and still made it to the train with a couple of minutes to spare.  The Italians in my compartment were nice.  Had a nice trip down the coast to Macerata.  Macerata is a lovely little hill town, some 35-40k people.  All out of a sandy colored brick.  Not as fancy as Assisi.  But very nice and comfortable.   Took some nice pictures this morning.  Will post when I can get settled.   We move into our apartments tomorrow, stayed last night and tonight in the local hostel. 

There are some great looking hill towns in biking reach around here.  And I have decided that I liked Cafe Macchiatos very much!

More tomorrow-

     - Brian -