Day 82

Magic Shirt, Follonica, originally uploaded by Ryan Runs Europe.

29.2 Kilometers.
In the morning, I went with Elena to the center of Suvereto, and we had breakfast together in the pretty cool medieval town. My breakfast consisted of yogurt and "focaccia with olives" that ended up being a very odd sweet bread with grapes (my mistake). I drove back to San Vincenzo with Elena, said my goodbyes and started off towards Follonica. The run was direct and along the Via Aurelia.
After grabbing something to eat and drink at a supermarket and briefly checking my email in and Internet cafe, I headed towards the center of town to seek out a running shop. Marco (from Brooks) emailed me a list of a few running shops around Italy, so I decided to go to this one and see if I could potentially find something to do and somewhere to sleep.
At "Music and Run" (a running shop that originally also sold CD's) I met Ferruccio, who was quick to offer me a place to sleep in the store for the night, and who got me a pass to use one of the nearby beach showers.
Apart from spending some time walking around the town/doing my laundry/getting food, I spent most of my afternoon and evening in the store, talking to customers and friends of Ferruccio.
The highlight of the day was definitely Ferrucio's attempts present (and sell) this new magic shirt that increases your balance. Supposedly the shirt has some mineral which emits infrared signals to the brain and encourages greater balance. Ferruccio would make a person stand on one leg and then apply pressure on their arms until they lost their balance. Then he would put the shirt around their neck and do the same thing...and the person would stay standing. He did it to me, and I watched him do it to many other people...and I am still not really sure if I believe it or not. I would love to see an actual scientific explanation of the stuff, if it exists. Regardless, a lot of people bought the shirt.
Around midnight I went across the street to a gelateria/cafe to use the bathroom. Ferruccio introduced me to the woman who was working there, and she gave me a free gelato. Afterwards, Ferruccio closed up shop and gave me the key. I locked myself in and slept on the bench that people sit on to try on shoes. It was actually pretty cool.