Mon 1st Macerata 3 DAY 9

We were back on the bike today but left most of our stuff in the Hostel – we had sort-of worked this out before we left that if we dumped all out things in our hotel we could venture out and then leave all our biking gear in/on the bike and change at the side of the road into cooler (temperature) stuff. Worked perfectly and (Mike, you’ll be impressed with this) I left my socks on the fairing to dry off and NO-ONE took them!

We left quite early and aimed firstly for Jesi (somewhere Debbie had visited about 28 years ago) but soon were distracted by signs for Tolentino, where Joanne had been yesterday. We decided to make a more circuitous route taking in Tolentino and were very glad that it happened that way.

Cloisters in Tolentino

 Tolentino is another ancient town full of grand buildings and very pleasant coffee too! The highlight was the Cathedral of St Nicholas. The cloisters were just so beautiful and peaceful with murals on the walls under the arches – see pics. There were masses of masses going on at 7.30, 8.30, 9.30 and 10.30 (!) four ‘sittings’ …or should that be ‘kneelings’….. no music but lots of talking – ooh yes, and a further four masses, on the half-hour, started later…er…. after lunch, of course. We stood outside waiting for the 10.30 to come (to an end) and a very friendly Augustine Monk popped out of no-where and ushered us IN saying we needed to go to the Crypt and then into the museum and, by then the mass would have finished and we could see the Duomo.

Murals around the cloisters in St Nicholas - Tolentino

 The first little chapel we went into was covered in sparkling fresco, all brilliantly coloured and dynamic. No photos were allowed (again) and, this time, I didn’t sneak one in this time – sorry! This chapel’s artwork was partly attributed to the Giotto school and was, indeed, very impressive.  The cathedral itself was, as usual, very ornate and the ceiling was another breathtaking vision. Basically about 40 squares about 3mX3m each with saints in 3D and gold, gold gold everywhere: very OTT but not ugly or coarse but really rather splendid.

Then we went to Jesi and were a little disappointed – seemingly it closed on Mondays but we had a good walk and found a market where we bought delicious tomatoes, peaches and grapes from a gnarled old woman with bright shining eyes. We devoured these for lunch at 4.30 back at the Hostel…after….

Clock tower in Tolentino

….swooping round from Jesi to Senegallia via Ostra (another couple of youthful-Debbie’s memories) and then onto Ancona and followed the coast road South – solid boob-to-boob, pec-to-pec, thigh-against-thigh sunbathing for about 25kms…..HORRIBLE.....’hot’ was the only word that fitted the scene and one could use it in every possible context. It took at least an hour of effort to GET AWAY from the sunbathers but we kept on getting turned back to the sea-side by each and every road we to took to get away from it. Eventually we found a way out and back to Good Ol’ Macerata for beers, lunch and blogging, after filling up the bike with fuel.

Lunch (at 4.30) back at the Hostel on the terrace.

Off to Napoli early tomorrow – we Google Earth’d our Hotel – street view – dunno HOW we’re ever going to find it in the real world but maybe dear little confused SatNav will help us in the end!