Poste and pizza

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Geo: 44.6981, 10.6308

Today began with breakfast in the hotel. The breakfast was nice enough, but what is it about small Italian hotels and completely silent breakfast rooms? It makes me a little crazy to hear myself eat, never mind the strangers at the next table. If I ever run a B&B, there will be some music in the breakfast room.

Since the Giro was scheduled to come through town that afternoon (right past our hotel -- howzzat for planning?), the road that we'd use to leave town would be closed until 4:30, so we moved our car out of the hotel car park, and into a parking lot just across the canal.

Before we could sit back and enjoy the day's activities, we needed to take care of a little business.
The company who rented our bikes to us apparently gave us some equipment that wasn't part of our agreement: handlebar bags, panniers and a floor tire pump. They needed it for another couple who's doing a bit of a tour with them, so they needed to get the stuff back.
I hadn't checked my emails in about a day and a half (which is pretty unusual for me), so I didn't see the message about all this. We were, by now, too far away to reasonably meet up with them, so we were asked to mail it back. They've been so accommodating prior to our arrival, so I didn't mind helping out with that.
We gathered up the items in the black garbage bag that was our carrying case for them, and went to find the post office.
I managed to communicate that we were looking to buy a box (or 2) to mail these things off. The clerk (behind a glass wall) smiled and nodded, and began setting up the forms for us to fill out.
Then we held up the bike pump. She raised an eyebrow, and tilted her head......
After about half an hour, we had paid for and packed up 2 boxes, and wrapped the "pompa" in the garbage bag to make as secure a packaging as we could, and all 3 were in the hands of the Italian Poste. I'll bet we were the subject of a couple of conversations that started "You would not believe the day I had....."

Now, then -- the race. Where to watch? There's a great little park across the street from the hotel, with nice trees to offer shade, and it seemed like it might be a happening place for the locals.
We found a spot to spread out our ground cover, and sat down to wait. The pizzeria (where we'd had dinner the night before) was busy hanging their sheet/sign from the 2nd story windows, to welcome the Giro. As I was watching that, and looking at the people seated on their patio, under the shade, I thought, "Those people have a great seat for the......wait.......empty table.....lunchtime........"
I turned to Dejo to see what he thought of the idea of claiming a table, having pizza and beer for the 2nd time in 24 hours, and watching the race.
A few minutes later, we had our seats, and commenced enjoying the afternoon.

My American guilt over taking up a table was assuaged a bit when I realized that even at the peak times, not all tables were full, so our sitting there for the race wasn't inconveniencing anyone.

If you haven't been to a grand tour bike race before, here's a little something you might not know: there's this thing called they publicity caravan (or here, the carovana).
The sponsors of the race outfit some vehicles with fiberglass sculpture-y things to replicate their products, fit speakers into them, and populate the cars with attractive, energetic young adults.
In the Tour de France, they throw out samples/schwag/literature all along the route, as they drive past people.
In the Giro d'Italia, when they get to a point with lots of spectators, the whole carovana stops, and the aforementioned beautiful people get out, and do a little choreographed dance (some more enthusiastically than others). They they walk around, handing out schwag and such.

Still with me? Good.

As we were sitting at our table, the carovana pulled onto the street, and stopped right in front of us. In addition to handing stuff out to the locals, several of them spotted the pizzeria, and popped in to use the facilities. And order the world's fastest pizza for takeout.

Beautiful, and resourceful.

By the by (in case anyone ever asks), the carovana speakers are loud. Or rather, LOUD. Just so you know. There are a couple of small dogs in Barberino di Mugello who probably don't respond to their owners' commands as well as they did a few days ago.

Roads closed until 4:30, you say? That's a moveable timeline. We were on the highway by 3.

Reggio Emilia was our next destination, as it was the finish point for this day's stage, and the start point for tomorrow. We found our hotel pretty easily, and got checked in. The car park did still have space, so we agreed to the €12 parking fee, and let the nice hotel man shoehorn our car into the 40'x40' courtyard that served as their parking area.

For dinner, we consulted the Holy Books of TripAdvisor and Yelp, and decided on the Bottega Burger Bar, which got great reviews. That was a fantastic decision.
From the instant we entered the place, we were welcomed, and treated like very important guests. The fellow who I'm guessing is the owner and/or executive chef, was ever-so-enthusiastic about explaining the menu, and some of the dishes he's most proud of.
It was a delightful meal, in a lovely setting. What a great way to end the day.

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Photos

Italian Poste
2 flat rate boxes (each containing 2 panniers) and a fancy-wrapped "pompa".

The local youth cycling club
Getting into the spirit and showing their support for the Giro

A tribute to Michele Scarponi
Not the first we saw, and not the last.

Wait....a pizza place?
On the race route? With open tables (in the shade) around lunchtime? Say no more.

Plenty of parking.
Thank goodness they had someone more adept at navigating this space take the keys.

Bottega Burger Bar
Delightful staff, charming setting.