Lesina

May 5, 2023

Republic Day, 2019

I’ll get to today’s ride to Lesina shortly, but first I want to highlight our previous visit four years ago, on Republic Day: one of our most memorable days in that spectacular tour. As a teaser to encourage you to check it out, there’s this puzzler: why, when the most spectacular sunset of the tour was developing on the west end of the lake, was the pier crowded with people lined up looking east instead?

And if you do check it out to satisfy your curiosity, don’t fail to watch the video; but you might dampen the volume on your device first.

Some Xoom news

Before I forget here’s an update on that Xoom cash pickup rejection. Last night we called two different Xoom representatives, because the first one didn’t inspire confidence that they knew what he was talking about; but the second one didn’t either. We think though that the issue may be that there are monthly transfer limits here both on how much you can send, and how much you can receive. It looks pretty clear that we can only send 999 euros each month, but maybe you can only receive 999 also. Neither of them sounded like they knew for sure, and after reading Xoom and Ria policy I can’t tell either. But it looks possible.

We’ll experiment with this, and try sending money to me instead of Rachael, and from me instead of Rachael; but if we’re limited to 999/month we might still have a cash flow problem before we head home next month.

Fortunately we didn’t cancel our credit cards yet and are still using them and monitoring the accounts faithfully morning and night for fraudulent activity. It’s been nine days now, so we’re feeling pretty optimistic that we can hoard our cash and ride the credit cards all the way through to Portland.

Today’s ride

Really, we’re not planning on making a habit of easy fifteen mile rides. Loafer rides like these met our technical definition of a rest day not so long ago, and now we’re having our second in three days. It’s not like we need another one so soon, but that’s just how the logistics worked in getting ourselves back on schedule.

There’s it too much to say about a flattish fifteen mile ride in fair weather with mild winds on quiet roads, so we’ll let the pictures do the talking. Nice ride, except for one wide puddle we had to walk around on a slick, muddy verge that was messy enough to gunk up our tires and shoes again. Yuck.

Pretty flat. We’re approaching the first of our two big climbs for the day - about a hundred feet in two miles. The wind’s mild today, so we should be able to make it.

Conquered that one. Pretty easy riding for the next few while we regroup for the main event.

Off the pavement now. The surface will be generally like this for the rest of the way. Rachael will suffer from a sore back and hips by the end of the day.

Just a tree planter now, but I’m sure quite stylish back in the day.

Here it comes! The summit is up at that line of wind turbines ahead.

Some poplars, and the distant Gargano massif.

This ruin and the bit of color give me an excuse to break up the climb.

The look back west from the summit, with the heights of Basilicata in the distance.

The view ahead. The first town is our destination, Lesina. Then Lake Lesina, surprisingly the ninth largest lake in Italy; then Lesina Marina, the resort town on the Adriatic.

Like I said, yuck. We could have used Rachel’s old shirt that she threw away after Patrick used it to clean their chains. I should be watching for a rag by the side of the road too.

Rachael claims she captured three birds on today’s video. I can’t identify any of them, so maybe you can help me out. Let me know so I can add them to the list. You’ll get credit!

Video sound track: I Wonder (Song for Michael), by Yasmin Williams

We arrive an hour earlier than the declared 3 PM check-in time. We’ve never heard back from our hosts on any of the several requests for early check-in that we sent, so after sitting and staring at the lake for several minutes we decide to head to one of the waterfront restaurants for lunch. It’s a slight menu and the waiter tells us that unfortunately there are no eels, a specialty that Lesina is famous for - fishing eels from the shallow brackish lake is a mainstay of the town’s economy. It sounds like the population crashed over last winter’s drought and the town is waiting for it to rebound.

We’re sorry for the community and to miss our chance at a tasty eel, but the grilled orata makes a good substitute. We pass a very pleasant hour enjoying our meal and a glass of wine in the comfortably warm afternoon, and then head to our room.

After we’ve settled into our little room we both leave for walks. Rachael heads east for a long walk along the lake and I head to the west end to check out a small nature reserve. After we’ve both returned we snack and loaf until it’s near sunset and then go out for a second pass along the waterfront to check out the sunset. No procession and blaring trucks this time, but it’s still pretty nice watching the swifts swirling above, toddlers feeding the noisy geese while their parents hang on so they don’t fall in the lake, and waiting for a lone black swan to align with the sheen of the setting sun on the lake.