I Look at Patty and Say..."I got nothin"

We really enjoyed talking to Fredrica and her friend Christina this morning while we ate breakfast.  Christina is a speech therapist at the hospital in Bologna, and Fredrica is an architect here in Ferrara.  Fredrica has a couple of furniture items that she has designed, and though I took pictures (I love a well designed piece of furniture) I won't post the pics because she is working on getting a patent for them. I will try and post a picture of a stand up desk/easel that her Dad made that I thought was pretty cool.

We said our goodbyes to Ferrara and found our way to Desta Po, the bike path that runs from Parma to Goro.  We...were in heaven.  No traffic, lush vineyards on one side of us, the Po River on the other, and a sunny day with temperatures in the 80's.  We had found a pastry shop we loved in Ferrara and bought sandwiches, biscotti, crackers, frizzante, and stopped at one of the picnic tables we saw along the path to have lunch.  Patty had another flat, and though we never did find the hole, we changed the tube and were merrily on our way.  Cindi Rauch, introverted as she is, was calling out "Buon giorno!" to everyone she passed.  Crazy.

We had no problems with the routing and eventually got off the path to find our way to the AgriTourismo we are staying at the next couple of days.  Oh my...there were maybe 6 or 8 roads all of which had the same name...Strada 37.  The AgriTourismo itself had two addresses.  We asked 3 different people for directions and none of them spoke English, but after about 40 minutes we arrived at the right place.  Are you confused yet because we sure were.  Both Patty and I decided that were we to do another trip like this we would not make reservations except in places like Rome, Florence, and Tuscany.  It would simply be easier to stop when you happen to see a place.

The La Ca' Del Delta is wonderfully quiet.  Patty and I are the only ones here!  We had stopped at the other address and the people were kind enough to call the manager and let them know we were on our way.  An older fellow even hopped on his bike and led us to the other address.  We waited.  No one answered the doorbell, and though the front door was unlocked, no one answered when Patty shouted, "Hello?". But then, a car came screeching to a halt in front of us.  A woman with a huge smile and a young man of maybe 17 or 18 got out of the car and greeted us.  The woman was entirely Italian.  She spoke loud, fast, completely and only in Italian.  For the next 15 minutes, after we had given her our passports, we played this game of...well, it was like playing "Password".  There were times when I felt like Jethro in the Beverly Hillbillies..."Why, Miss Jane...I have no idea what you jest said!"  I looked at Patty and said, "I got nothin'...".  I was socially exhausted by the end, but we are in our room, have showered, and are off to eat some large amounts of Italian food.  We rode around 68 miles today, 32 yesterday, 23 miles on that crazy day from Bologna, and 42 on Monday in Abruzzo.  Tomorrow, armed with a map, we are going to explore the Po Delta.