With seven stops behind me, the next move was heading north. I wrapped up my Pescara stay with a Monday coastal hike, chasing rumors of a private beach. Montesilvano delivered with a plate of linguini and clams and stretch of sand full of beautiful women. My kind of day!
Dinner that night was light with a ferocious order of ravioli with mushroom sauce. The rest of the night consisted of taking a wrong turn leaving the restaurant and ending up in a crazy neighborhood south of the bus station with some shady, shady folks. I stood straight, walked with confidence and high t tailed to my neighborhood without drawing attention to myself. In the end I made it to my flat safely or you would not be reading this right now. The rest of the night consisted of packing up and reviewing the next morning’s itinerary.
I woke fairly early, finished getting myself together, and walked to the station, sticking to my travel day tradition of skipping breakfast and lunch. The first train tried to sabotage that with complimentary snacks right before an hour‑and‑a‑half delay at some random station thanks to signal problems up the line. Honestly, the snacks felt like something I’d do to appease clients when I foresee delays in the pipeline.
In classic Italian fashion, I missed my Bologna connection by fifteen minutes. And in classic Frankie fashion, I’d already looked up the next departing train before we even pulled in. I hopped off, found the track, and ticket‑jumped onto another train within ten minutes. I arrived an hour later than planned, but with fewer stops on the second train, I still made decent time.
My buddy AI “that’s artificial intelligence, not a guy named Al” had already explained how to catch the waterbus at the ACTV gates and correctly picked the 5.1 line. It dropped me two minutes from The Boulevard Hotel on Lido’s main drag. If you’ve read my previous entries, you know what happened next: quick freshen‑up, then straight out to find the beach. Not before a beer and a caffè, though. “I skipped breakfast and lunch. A man needs his calories and caffeine!”
The beach was easy to find, Google rarely struggles with locating the Adriatic Sea. By late afternoon most people were already heading home. Headed back to the hotel I grabbed fruit from a local stand and groceries from the shop conveniently next to my hotel. As the sun set I wandered the neighborhood and, bonus, found a laundromat just down the street. A welcome discovery, because washing clothes in the sink is getting old.
Dinner was nearby and apparently forgettable, because I couldn’t tell you what I ate. With another travel day behind me, my four days on Lido were off to a good start.
fscavullo 