Day 11: Saturday, May 17. Kim and I parted company for the day. Her nephew Jake was flying into Bologna and she had to go pick him up (the reason it was so imperative to get the car yesterday, regardless of the rental agency's computer problems). I was going with the students by bus to Civitanova, the nearest town to Macerata on the coast. We were to meet at 9:10 a.m. at the inter-city bus station (different from the local bus station). I had been there before, but just to be sure, without anyone else to walk with me, I left ridiculously early and was there more than a half-hour ahead of time. I sat and had a coffee and roll. The students were also early. They were all there by 8:50. I told them how impressed I have been with their timely arrival. Filiberto arrived right about 9:10. Our bus pulled out at 9:20.

Unlike our Rome and Macerata walking tours, this one was not terribly steeped in history. Civitanova is a fairly new town, with most of the structures built since WWII. The prime reason for a Saturday visit was to go to the market. Theirs is larger than Macerata's. After pointing out a few landmarks (like where they needed to go to take the bus back to Macerata), Filiberto turned everyone loose to explore before he took us on a tour. Obviously their market has food, clothes, etc., but we even stopped at a stall selling live poultry. Filiberto asked the vendor whether the birds were for eating or egg production, and the answer was both. As for price, they varied dramatically. Some rarer breeds sold for ridiculously high amount while others were about the same you'd pay for whole chicken in the store. Our walk took us to the port with lots of fishing boats, then onto the beach for a short time. Interestingly, the beach to the south of the port is gravel while north of the port is sand. No camera today, so I just took this image from the web.

An option for students today was to pay 15 Euros for a complete lunch. Twelve of the 17 students decided to join us. The first course was a large serving of an egg pasta similar to a spaghetti noodle but square shape rather than round. The main course was fried calamari. Sides were either french fries or salad.

The students went to the beach for the remainder of the day. They had the bus schedule and knew when they could return, so it was up to them how long they wanted to stay. I was surprised how many of them actually went into the water. Angelica had driven her car, so Filiberto, she and I drove back to Macerata, along with one of the students who wanted to shoot video for his project. It just so happens his church had a festival tonight so he wanted to come back and get the gear. They drove us to the office, I got him a camera and glide cam and headed home. A while later he called to ask if he could get a tripod instead. None of our group has ever used the glide cam and I think they convinced him not to try but rather stick with a tripod.

Kim and Jake finally made it back to Macerata after a long day of touring around. We had dinner at the same nearby place we ate earlier this week. Everybody was pretty tired after a long day.