More Marche! - Cantiano to Fabriano

​As promised a recap of last nights feast.  The restaurant was closed and the brewery where we are staying is in the country at the base of Mount Catria.  So the hosts said they would cook us whatever we wanted.  Everything sounded good so we left it mostly up to them as we didn’t fully understand the choices either.  So what came was cannelloni which was full of vegetables and a delicious pungent cheese maybe like a garganzola.  Then what she called “stinko” which was a pigs foot stewed with vegetables, herbs, juniper berries and stout beer ( it was to die for).  Then fried polenta and meatballs and a Marche flatbread she called crescia.  Then a dessert which was a ricotta mousse with a graham cracker like layer and a sour cherry sauce and a bowl of tiny miniature pears and grapes. It was so much food and it was so delicious and delivered right to our apartment.  The pics don’t do it justice because we just ate out of the containers they were delivered in but it was memorable. The “stinko”

Oh and forgot to mention roasted potatoes and a pitcher of beer.  Here is some of the spread. 

And a happy customer. 

The next morning we go to the brewery for breakfast and Vera brings us coffee, juice and two kinds of typical Italian cake called ciambelloni.   They are of course delicious.  So we think we are done but no out comes the local meat, cheeses, their own honey and of course more crescia bread.  

Then Augusto and Vera come and join us for conversation.  We talk about our families and their emigrations. Vera’s family is from this place and they never left.  Augusto’s grandparents emigrated to Milwaukee but bought a house in Fossombrone later in life and travelled back and forth. Of course they were interested to hear that my relatives were also Marchigianan.  So we showed them the picture we took of them when we visited in 2019 and we took some today.  They told us we needed to come back next year and we will take pictures every year.  We paid our bill which was an absurdly low amount and warm hugs and kisses.  We feel like we left as friends.  Before we leave she cuts a chunk of the cake, puts it in a bag and gives it to us.  It was a welcome snack later on the day’s journey!

So we head out into an overcast and very windy bike ride.  

The wind persists the whole day but fortunately a large part of the ride has the wind in our sails which was nice.  However, the wind was ferociously strong at times and there was an element of danger as limbs were falling and of course acorns and chestnuts were falling and leaves and debris were blowing. 

We rode through the gorge above where the wind was quite strong.  We passed a lot of cyclists going the other way into the wind and we were glad we were going with the wind.  

We ride through Sassoferrato which who knew, is the sister city of Iron Mountain! 

It was a town worthy of a revisit as we didn’t stay long because the wind was so strong at that point. 

We really didn’t take many pictures other than this mill at the base of the town which suffered a lot of flood damage. 

Jim stayed with the bikes while I hiked up to see this temple near the town of Genga.  It was a bit of a hike up a path in a gorge where this church is tucked partially in a cave.  Very atmospheric!

Then we continue on with only about five more miles to Fabriano.  Yes there were some hills.