Sat 30th Macerata 1 DAY 7

Had a lovely, quite stay at Montecatini Terne and left quickly in the morning with a mission to get to Macerata as efficiently as possible. We decided to motorway as much as we could and that meant being back in either competitive mode or keeping-out-the-way mode. Which one was adopted depended on conditions but we have arrived in one piece and Rob only swore at about 3 or 4 others over the 202 miles we did today.

Lower square looking at the church - St Francis buried there

On the way we visited Assisi – of Saint Francis fame – which was one of the most well-kept places we’ve ever been to. Even the back streets were immaculate with perfect buildings and absolutely clean, almost polished streets. Very cool in the shade but blistering in the sun and we parked just out side the city gates and walked in our boots and heavy trousers from there. The actual church or basilica was on TWO levels with the large cathedral sized one above and then just downstairs Saint Francis’s Tomb in another crypt-like, but nonetheless medium-sized cathedral-esque, vaulted, painted and gold-guilded splendrous space.

Narrow, but cool street in Assisi - we DID make it to the top, of course

We left suitably impressed and went back to the bike which was now in full sun and untouchable. Debbie retreated to the shade to put on her bike gear leaving Rob to get burnt bum and very hot. We were thankful to get on the motorway in the cool air at 60mph – which is about our most comfortable cruising speed.

The last stages of getting into Macerata SatNav got a bit confused so we resorted to asking and found very helpful people who pointed us in the right direction.

Our Hostel is really lovely with a jolly hostel-keeper who will do anything….we’re giving him a load of washing tomorrow! The Hostel sells wine at 3 euros a litre – so we’ll probably try quite a lot of that!

We went up to Joanne’s Hotel (in the posh end of town) but she was not there so we left our number with Signor 'Camp' (at reception) and hope she (I mean Joanne) will phone us. The Opera arena is right out side our bedroom window so we hardly needed to buy tickets, in fact. We think we heard a baritone rehearsing in the Scuola di Musica at 4.30 as we walked through the town before having out first cold beer. The Opera is NOT cancelled tonight (as previously thought – it was cancelled on 27^th ‘cos of rain - and Nikki said it NEVER rained): we are going at 8.30 ready for a 9pm start. Picked up the tickets already and we can’t wait.

Debbie and Rob before the start of Rigoletto (by Verdi)

The performance was a real delight with a very clean and tight band and excellent singers. Two intervals but NO interval drinks so they were quick enough to change/modify the set and then we got on with it. Some pics of the opera place from the inside but, obviously, none during the actual music (at least not from us, anyway!). Afterwards we all spilled onto the streets – the caribinieri stopped all the traffic (still going full tilt at 12.30) so we could get to a bar for a nightcap with Joanne (also all going full tilt when we left at 1.30am). 

Sfesteria (the opera arena) after the performance. we
sat just to the left of the arch at the top in the level just
above the 'posh' seats and had a MUCH better view than them.

At the end of the opera we took our time leaving and seized the opportunity to go and look at the  orchestra pit. All the music stands had clothes pegs (to stop music from blowing around as it was nicely breezy) and the conductor had used a miniature score but never seemed to ever look at it during the performance....he looked about 12 tho' and was very busy and excited. The orchestra quite often ignored him, but only Debbie, Rob and Joanne (and the players, of course) noticed that....the conductor himself certainly didn't: tee-hee-hee!
Tomorrow will be a lazy day with no biking and we'll try to have a good look around the town of Macerata where we are staying for tomorrow and Monday. Back on the bike heading for Napoli on Tuesday.