Everywhere Virtually

The day started with a lovely 45 minute ride along the Eastern shore of Lago Garda, before heading in as straight as possible a line for Ancona port.  There were only two things to distract us in our mission to get to Ancona in time to buy some ferry tickets for the overnight boat to Split, Croatia.

First of those distractions was just to the north of Rimini … We came across the Fiume Rubicone … otherwise known as The Rubicon.  This pathetic unremarkable stream once marked the border between the Roman provinces and Italy proper.  The expression to cross the Rubicon is in reference to Julius Caesar, who invaded Italy by crossing the Rubicon with his legions.  Generals were supposed to re-enter Italy “unarmed”, but Caesar crossed with his legions, and in doing so, launched the Civil War against the Senate and its army – a war in which Caesar eventually won – becoming dictator in the process.  So today, WE crossed the Rubicon .. not figuratively, but literally!.

The second distraction of the day was San Marino.  A short side trip up to a mountainside fortress enabled us to claim our 11th country of the trip so far.  The Garmins both went a little crazy on the way back down  … maybe San Marino is a GPS black hole.  or maybe garmin is crap??

The border	Views to the San Marino race track
A stunning vantage point	There is that Sibirsky sticker again... :)

Finally we pulled into Ancona port, bought the tickets for ourselves and the bikes to Split and headed off to find the internet cafe… The guys at the cafe were from the indian sub continent. They wanted our passports. I don’t like anybody holding my passport let alone some stranger in an internet cafe. It turns out his motives were innocent. Anyone using the internet in Italy has to be identified. Funny I thought the Fascists had left after the downfall of Mussolini. Nevertheless I wasn’t happy so handed over an old, expired passport. The guy lift the lid of the photocopier and I said NO! You are not scanning my passport. He said “then I need a deposit…”, “for what?” I asked. We are hardly going to run off with a mouse or a computer. We are on motorcycles we just want to check our email.

Finally he trusted us enough to let us use the Internet and I said I wanted the passports in plain view. After a half hour of checking emails and eyeballing our internet master we headed next door for a Kebab. Time had caught up with us somewhat and we had to navigate our way through the maze that is Ancona port. Because of the need to move all the time and be geared up we couldn’t eat the kebab which was by now cooling down rapidly.

The Internet cafe	Walter packing up
Tickets bought	Ready to board

Tomorrow we wake up in Croatia.  Bona Sera !