Mobility is everything

After they had stolen our bikes in Loano one week before we left, we are considerably restricted in our mobility. You notice that very quickly when you lack the relief. At the moment we do everything on foot and with backpack, which is quite exhausting. For example, if you order an article from a DIY store that is not in stock, you will get the standard answer the day after tomorrow here in Italy. If you run there again after 3 days to pick up the part, it is of course not there and you get the answer again the day after tomorrow. That is then twice there and back 10km. But then you still don't have the part and if you are lucky you only have to add 5km if you are lucky! When shopping for food I prefer to buy potato chips, the bag weighs just 180g, but unfortunately this would be a rather unbalanced food in the long run to express it very carefully. During such a visit in a supermarket, a weight of 10 to 15kg without drinks quickly comes together, for which we pull our load scooter afterwards. To make matters worse, the footpaths here in Italy are anything but pedestrian-friendly. High edges, weeds to the point of impassability, holes, rubbish and dog droppings are only a few examples of a footpath in Italy. Thus, the highest concentration is always required when walking on an Italian sidewalk. Not to mention that such a footpath can suddenly end and you find yourself in front of a freeway feeder road that you somehow have to cross, but not before you have crossed a guardrail that is so sharp-edged that it cuts off half my balls, but maybe I should tell you the story from the beginning.

Since the bicycles go out us nevertheless quite strongly we decided to care for new ones. A Decathlon is only 7km away from us and since we had bought the last ones there this was our first choice. But unfortunately there is no bus connection there. So we searched for a bus connection which led us at least into the near. From there it was still 2km to run and thanks to Google this is no more a problem today. This is what I think! After good 1.5km the sidewalk stopped in front of a guardrail fence and we stood in front of the highway feeder. Decathlon to grab close, this crash barrier could not stop us. We climbed over it. Unfortunately the ground on the other side was a bit deeper so that I slipped over the sharp edge of the guard rail and almost castrated myself. Well, at my age it's not so terribly bad if it hadn't been for the pain. But I couldn't think about it for long either, because I was standing on the acceleration lane of this feeder road and wanted to get away as soon as possible. On the other side a guardrail was waiting for me again and you can hardly believe it, the continuation of the pedestrian path on the other side. This ended then definitely 200m before our goal directly on a sewage pipe with 2m diameter at which we let ourselves down half sliding, half stumbling. Via a footpath we finally reached our destination. The cut in the crotch was taken care of on the toilet. We were looking for a folding bike but couldn't make up our minds and after looking around the shop we left without having achieved anything. The same way back, but much more cautious about the guardrail. So we were spared further injuries and reached our bus stop again. The bus driving is working quite well meanwhile, so that we arrived back home without any further incidents.




On the following Saturday there was a market in Fiumicino and we wanted to have a look around a bit, there is also a bicycle dealer in the street where the market takes place which we wanted to visit. So we strolled over the market where you can buy almost everything. From clothes, body care products, household goods like pots and pans, as well as vegetables and meat, just everything. The market takes place every Saturday. Quickly the bicycle dealer was found and actually there were two folding bikes that we liked. I began to negotiate, a bicycle should cost 360€ which was clearly too high for me. He fixed the price at 330€. I said to him "well, that's the price for one bike, but I'll buy two from you". The dealer disappeared into his office very thoughtfully and came out after a whole while again. I expected him to tell me now about his children, who absolutely need something to eat and so on, but he said 600€ is what I can still do and you get a lock for each bike in addition. Now we had our win-win situation, the dealer was satisfied and we were too. He immediately put himself at work and had the two bikes prepared by his mechanics. He didn't let it take him to test the bikes himself before he handed them over to us. So now we are a little more mobile and can use the bikes also as load donkeys. Then we took our first trip and drove to the beach of Lido del Faro, where we arrived with our Katinka here in the area and had the first quiet night after three days of swell and strong wind. Back in the marina, the boss also ran us over the way, which I asked when he planned to get us out of the water. He said he would let us know on Monday.




When we came out of the water and what happened next, we'll tell you next week. Until then, as usual, keep your hands wide (Fair winds) and your ears stiff.