This morning's marcia started from the Fortezza Firmafede Sarzana (the Castle near the town center), with distances of 6, 14, 28 or 60 K. There were a lot of participants this sunny morning, including groups from out of town and school groups (apparently this is a competition for the groups). On arriving at the castle, I waved to Kimberly taking off with a group of friends (this is her first marcia), and met Connie and Franco who were also just setting off. Franco went on his 6K course, while Connie waited for me to sign up since we were both doing the 14K (or so we thought). We started walking, but after 500 m or so I decided to jog since the first few K were quite flat. The course initially followed a stream and went gradually uphill, but it was mostly on asphalt or not as steep as the last week's marcia, passing houses with small farms. However it was quite humid and I was got very sweaty and thirsty, wondering where the first "ristoro" (drink station) was. 
At almost 7K, there were more signs of civilization -- the drink station was someone's garage on the top of the trail in the town of Carignano (house on top of hill in the middle of left photo). And what a spread! This is the first time I've seen so many varieties of food and drinks. I was offered water, hot tea, fruit juices or wine (only in Italy one gets wine at a drink station, although I read that wine is also offered in the Marathon du Medoc in France). As for food -- there were cookies, sgabei (fried pizza dough), panettone (bread with fruit), torta di riso (custard over rice, sweet), torta di faro (sort of barley pie, savory), torta di zucchini (zucchini pie), torta di fruita (fruit tart), pieces of chocolate, cut fruit, and get this, porchetta (slices of whole roasted pork) and panini (sandwiches with the same porchetta).
I may have missed a few other dishes -- pretty amazing. If not for the fact that there are still another 7K to go, I would have sampled everything. I had a few glasses of water, hot tea and grapefruit juice plus a few slices of oranges, and regretfully passed on the porchetta (tried a small bite of barley pie out of curiousity, definitely not something I like at first bite). Some of the other participants sat down in the chairs provided and had a proper rest with food! While I was checking out the food and snapping a few photos, Connie made it to the ristoro. After she had her drinks, we walked on together. The course split after the ristoro, the 28 and 60K routes continue on to more hilltop towns while the 14K course went downhill back to Sarzana. Connie took the opportunity to continue Italian conversation lessons on the way back (she teaches me Italian every Friday evening).
Because we were talking, we did not feel the distance and before too long, my Garmin displayed that we have completed 14K with no castle in sight. Turned out that the course was 16K, at least according to my GPS. Nearer to town, we saw a sign that said "KM Ultimo" (last KM), and as we crossed to a pedestrian walkway along a path, someone has spray painted a sign on the path which translated to "tired?" which we thought was amusing. We finally made it back to the castle after 2:36 hrs where Franco was waiting.
The courtyard of the castle grounds was filled with people collecting their goodies (a bottle of wine with the label of the running club and the event, there is a choice of red or white), and receiving trophies. Participants also received a lucky draw chit for a free gift. Franco gave me his for a music cassette while I got a very nice pair of shorts which were too small, but will probably fit Connie or one of her granddaughters :) There were more food at the finish but I still could not eat any of the panini (with mortadella) or pastries (more sgabei, torta, etc), although I had a hard boiled egg. There was also ice cream and yoghurt. I will always remember this marcia for the food!
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