Day 37- Goodbye Venice Hello Pescara

Truth be told we have some parts of our trip planned and some parts are not.  When it came to Italy, we did not have much planned.  Some events changed, like having to go back up to France to meet at the haunted chateau, spending time in Paris with Russ’ sister and our niece, so Italy was a bit shaky at best.  The one place I knew that I  wanted to go was a place that my family had stayed in Tuscany.

If any of you know my step-dad Bill…he is more like a dad to me…to know him is to love him!  He is just a great guy to be around!  One thing he has done a lot in his life, is travel! He has a way of  finding interesting places to go and interesting things to do.  So when he told us about La Falconara, where he stayed with his current wife Kay ( a wonderful lady!!) and my little sister Jen ( she an amazing person too), I knew that we had to stay there!  We ended up booking the week of Thanksgiving, my birthday, and our 24th wedding anniversary!  That was the only plan for Italy we had nailed down.  We knew that we wanted to go to Venice, the Amalfi coast, Rome, etc… all the things we had mapped out with our Rick Steves’ travel guru.  We did have a few hiccups and changes, so here we were…we had nothing booked until our La Falconara trip on the 22nd-29th of November!  Yikes!  We decided to go down to the Amalfi coast, and then head back up!  So we were left trying to figure out a route and where to stay, etc.  I basically googled where a good halfway point would be and got the coastal town of Pescara.  It was right on the Adriatic, but I had never heard of it…I mean how bad could it be?

So that was the choice, Pescara and then we would go to Sorrento and base ourselves out of that city for a few days.  We found a hotel for the night, that was right on the beach and it was cheap!  Yay!  Sadly, we said goodbye to Venice and set out for Pescara.  It was about a 4 hour drive from Venice through hills and countryside.  When we got off the highway (or the motorway as our English GPS lady says) that was when the chaos of Italy hit us front and center.  You need to know that Vespa riders are almost suicidal..I mean going around cars, creating there own lanes…nuts!  Then there is the whole straddling the lane…cars that are in two lanes at once…wtf???  Lanes are a suggestions, there is not taking turns, you must be aggressive!  Oh boy!  We decided that this part of Italy was like a combination of Europe and Mexico…a little dirty…a little seedy…a lot crazy!  After a few road closures, crazy one way streets, and lots of traffic, we made it to our hotel.

Yes our hotel was on the beach…but the beach was like a ghost town.  There were lots of beach clubs, and restaurants on the water…and just about all of them were closed for the season.  Add in a touch of graffiti and trash…and it was just not a very nice place.  Sorry Pescara!  We had dinner at a pizza place that was basically a take out joint…but the pizza was actually very good!  We took a walk along the empty boardwalk…but ended up heading back to the hotel as it got dark…because honestly it was a bit spooky!

Our next task, using the shaky internet, was to find where we were going to stay for a week in Sorrento.  Here is what we have going for us…it is the rainy off season and Sorrento is a beach resort.  We ended up finding a basement apartment, at the bottom of a 3 story house…sounds like our current living situation!  So after we secured our lodging, it was off to bed…we just wanted to wake up and get the you know what out of Pescara!