2009-08-10 43 10

Mon 10 Aug 2009 in Livorno: 43.8559601, 10.4619887 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

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 Grin^TM 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

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  Nave town sign

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  the bridge over the Serchio

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  Track intersection next to the Serchio, north of the hashpoint, looking west

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  Same place, looking south

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  even nearer

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  Overview

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  Overview

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  un cavallo

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  ghigno stupido^TM

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  street sign in Nave

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  Looking over Lucca towards the hashpoint from the Torre Guinigi. Yes, there are trees growing on top of the tower.

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

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.