2009-08-10 43 10

From Geohashing
Mon 10 Aug 2009 in Livorno:
43.8559601, 10.4619887
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Location

Today's location is near Nave, a frazione (administrative subdivision) of Lucca.

Country: Italy; region: Toscana (Tuscany, EU-IT-52); province: Lucca (EU-IT-LU); comune: Lucca

Weather: sunny, hot (between 32-35 °C)


Expedition

Danatar

I was in Tuscany with my orchestra, doing four concerts in six days and visiting the region in between. Thanks to ekorren's tool I was able to look up the coordinates. None of them were near enough to the place we were staying at (43.88 10.77), but I was lucky and the "tourist" part of our stay brought us to Lucca.

First I visited the city with the others, but when they decided to sit down in a café I took the opportunity. The conditions were favorable: Our meeting point for the bus was at the city gate nearest to the hashpoint and the tourist information agency with bike rental was just inside the same gate. I had about 45 minutes left until meeting time, so I quickly rented a bike and started out.

Due to expensive internet-via-mobile-phone-abroad I had downloaded only the very essential maps and I was not sure if I was using the correct road: The road name didn't fit but the road category did and according to the map I found at the tourist office it at least led me in the correct direction. After a not very long journey in the hot sun I found the town sign of Nave. Hooray! Because I didn't know which side street to take I continued straight ahead until I reached the river Serchio and then followed the path along the river back to the intersection north of the hashpoint.

At the hashpoint I found some disheveled buildings and two horses. That had not been visible on the satellite view and I was a bit confused and walked around in circles trying to orientate myself. When I approached the horses one of them didn't come near me and the other made strange sounds so I didn't pet them for fear of losing my fingers. I only took pictures of them, the area and myself at the presumed hashpoint, then I left.

I quickly cycled back to the tourist office, returned the bike and arrived at the meeting point only a few moments after the meetup time, drenched in sweat. When the others asked about my bike ride I only gave vague answers like "oh, I just cycled around a bit, outside the city wall and to the river" in order to preserve the last bit of a semblance of sanity.


Note: While writing this report at home and after compairing my pictures with the better map data now available I think that the place where I took the Stupid GrinTM picture is in front of the wrong bushes and that the hashpoint is more where the car is in the first overview picture. I'm sure I must have passed the spot while walking around so I'll still consider the coordinates reached.


Distance cycled (from Lucca): 5.1 + 3.8 = 8.9 km


Virgin-graticule.png
Danatar earned the Virgin Graticule Achievement
by being the first to reach any hashpoint in the (43, 10) graticule, here, on 2009-08-10.
2009-08-10 43 10 cavallo.jpg


Other hashpoints in connection with my/our trip to Italy a.k.a. lamenting missed opportunities:

  • On 2009-08-12 our last concert took place in a village only 5 km away from that day's hashpoint and we passed within 850 m of the spot on the highway earlier that day during the touristy visit to Cinque Terre, but I had absolutely no possibility of going there (it would have been no trespassing anyway). I even had an intrigued possible drag-along :-(
  • The 2009-08-16 location is within walking distance of our hotel, and I can (approximately) identify the hashpoint on landscape pictures I took from two totally different directions. But it's too late, I'm already back at home. :-( /me slaps zbot around a bit with a large pizza frutti di mare for being too late.