On our last ride we met up with Paolo again. He'd been with us for the first two days then disappeared. Claudio, the hotel manager said he'd been sick.
When he turned up he had a bruised forearm as a result of being on a drip in hospital. Kidney stones we think (although his English is good it still wasn't pefectly clear what his ailment was).
But he was keen to get back in the saddle. We did a circuit that went around San Marino taking in the climbs above and behind it to the famous Cippo where Marco Pantani used to train. From the pass at over a thousand metres at Villegrande we could look back down on San Marino - so we'd done a bit of climbing.
The climbs were more even and steady than the steep Montescudo two days before but went on for a while. The worst part was the descents. If the roads were any good we could have had a great time going down but the broken uneven surface meant brakes on even along the straights as you picked your way through.
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| Where we were headed. The pass at the left. |
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| Top of the climb |
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| Looking down on San Marino from Serra San Marco. |
We stopped for coffee at an abrupt rocky hill called San Leo. A fortress built on top and ancient town square within had the most uneven pave and few tourists. Great coffee and quite a "find".
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| San Leo |
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| San Leo with Paolo waving |
The next day we packed up our 13 pieces of luggage and headed to Rome.
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| Our gear. Waiting for the train at Riccione |
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