Ancona and Loreto

This morning we left relatively early towards Ancona. A bit of shopping and some sightseeing were on the agenda. We know almost all the curves on the mountain roads up to Mergo by heart now and the highway to Ancona didn't raise any questions either. In Ancona, always head towards centro until we ended up in a really small parking lot right on the pedestrian zone. Well, now let's get a parking ticket and then go...

But that wasn't as easy as the Italians waiting behind us confirmed. The machine first asked for the parking space number (which was on the street), but it wasn't satisfied with that and also wanted to know the license plate number (which clearly exceeded my Italian vocabulary...), then after a confirmation (verde, said the Italians...meaning the green button labeled 'valide') we had to enter the desired parking duration. Once that was successfully selected and confirmed, we had to insert money. Of course, I didn't have the exact change, so I inserted 4 euros instead of the desired 3 euros just to be safe. Oooohhh, not good at all, the highly complicated machine couldn't handle that. It spit everything out, and the procedure started again from the beginning.

The Italian lady who had been helpful to us so far now asked if she could quickly solve her parking ticket, now that we knew how it worked. Okay, ignoring the little line behind us, we started again from scratch. But not before the Italian lady patiently stroked the machine and asked it for calm...we had a good laugh about that! Eventually, we got our parking ticket and had a great time laughing that the Italians after us had a similar experience. It really is a bit complicated :-)

In a good mood because we successfully passed this first test of the day, we explored the main shopping street. Once up, then down a side street, and then we had our first coffee.

We continued through the old town passing by pallazi vecchii on our way to the Cathedral. At the top of the hill, we had a magnificent view of the harbor, the sky was shining in the most beautiful blue.

The cathedral has an extraordinary atmosphere inside, quiet, lots of stone, and a very beautiful wooden ceiling.

Afterwards, we walked back through the old town for a little lunch snack.

The tour continued to Loreto, 20 km southwest of Ancona. Advertised as the second most important shrine for Catholics after Rome and curious because of a postcard, we set off.

Even from a distance, we could see the huge complex of the Basilica high up on the mountain. Luckily, without crowds of tourists, we got a central parking lot very close to everything we wanted to see. Here, a local encouraged us very nicely to park in the taxi parking lot...probably there won't be any taxis here in the fall. But we already had a parking spot:

So we parked bravely and started walking.

The Basilica is surrounded by a large square with arcades and it already makes an impressive impression from the outside. Inside, under an impressively painted dome, there is a huge, artistic marble box that hides the sanctuary, the santa casa. The stones of the santa casa are said to come from the cave where Maria's parents' house was attached to...