Randomness

We rather regretted having to leave Ascoli Piceno today. I think I've made a bit of an error in booking us into a B&B near the Adriatic in a village that seems to be closed for the winter (and we seem to be the only guests in the B&B). In retrospect it would have been better to stay longer in Ascoli Piceno and enjoy the sights of old boys on bikes and old boys drinking from fountains shaped like horses with fish tails (dragons?). In fact, there were practically people queuing up to drink, or fill water bottles, from this fountain right opposite where we were sitting to have our morning coffee, to the extent that we started to wonder if it had special medicinal or magic properties.

Anyway, we made up for our disappointment in having to leave AP with a trip up into the mountains where we found an excellent lunch in a little village called Montemonaco. According to its wikipedia entry, this village is located on a plateau. As far as we could see, it's perched precariously on a ridge. We're both smart. We can tell the difference between a ridge and a plateau, and if there are bits of the road where there's a vertiginous drop on either side then it's definitely the former not the latter.