Bike pickup and Day 1 Ride

June 14:  We had a very relaxed start to the day, since we were scheduled to meet Peitro, our local Randonnee contact at 11:45 am to review our biking plans and to answer any questions.  Randonnee is the Vancouver, BC-based travel company who made the arrangements for our 9-day Puglia tour.  After a leisurely breakfast, some checking on our lost luggage (it was in country and handed off to a courier for delivery) and working on our claim for compensation from British Airlines, our group met Peitro.  

He was very helpful and provided some additional local commentary which was not in the written materials.  He ferried us in groups of three to the bike shop, to get fitted for our bikes.  Most of us got Cannonade hybrid bikes and the rest Cannonade 'racing' bikes.  The have small tires and ride nicely.  Dennis and I bought riding gloves.

We rode from the bike shop back to the hotel, about 4.5 miles, stopped for a short break during which Dennis and I took a short dip in the pool to cool off, and then started our Day 1 loop ride.  We rode southeast from the hotel on a quiet inland road about 5 miles past farms of very old, twisted and gnarly olive trees, often with vegetables plants in between the trees.  We then traversed over to the seaside road for our return.  We passed a sleepy port town, with lots of restaurants and bars (everything else was shuttered since it was siesta time), and onto the Egnazia Museum and Ruins.  We stopped at the museum which chronicles the archaeological history of this Roman town with lots of artifacts and dioramas.  We then rode out to the ruins and walked around them. They were mostly low stone walls showing the outlines for homes, basilicas, a market square, Roman-style baths, remanents of mosaic floors, and a road, complete with chariot ruts.  The road surface was about 3 feet below the surrounding farm land that bordered the site.  Dennis theorized that one could go out into a nearby field, and by digging, find the road and possibly many other interesting things.  He imagined how digging in one's backyard anywhere might lead to interestlng discoveries, something that would be much more unlikely for us in Portland or elsewhere in the US.

We rode back to the hotel completing about 18 miles in total for the day.  We cleaned up, had happy hour outside on the veranda and walked down to the seaside for dinner at Elia Restaurant.  I had probably the best tuna ever - fresh, tender and with a sesame seed crust.  It was called Tuna Tataki.  The portions were large.  We shared a bottle of a local white wine, very crisp and dry.