_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Comments from Past Guests
1. Tuscany May 2008.
Had a wonderful time the accommodation was first rate, the bike was of a high standard and Ross was flexible with his plans to fit in with the needs and interests of his riders & pillions. Ross knows the area so well you see things you would not find by yourself. He is relaxed and interesting tour guide, all our needs were met and look forward to going again, when our finances are replenished.
Sue & Chris Cater – Narrawallee NSW
2. Dolomites May 2008.
Dear Ross,
I just wanted to let you know I arrived home safely & what a fantastic time I had on my second tour with you, the Dolomites. I still can’t believe how amazing the roads were. I have spoken to a lot of people about the tour since being home and no-one can believe how easy going the road rules are. I’m not sure if I told you, on the free day, Craig and I went to Cortina and on the way out of the township there was a policeman pointing a speed camera at us with a big read out above his head, we were in a 50km zone and the big screen displayed 87, which was right, (we had a momentary lapse in concentration) all he done was gestured for us to slow down!!! In Australia we would have been booked with a nasty fine.
I found the Dolomites to be a lot tighter in the corners than Tuscany (May 2006) but such a riders paradise, everywhere you go, it’s another Great Ocean Road. The accommodation was perfect and it was a good feeling supporting people who support Motorcycling. How fantastic are those maps from Cavalese, AMAZING!
Ross, thank you very much for another set of memories that will stay with me forever, I look forward to the Corsica/Sardinia Tour in 2010 but don’t be surprised if I book for another tour before then.
Kindest of regards,
Peter Doodt.
My wife and I did the Tuscany tour, and I most recently went to the Dolomites - the scenery is fantastic and Ross is a great host, who takes pride in ensuring that everyone has a good time. The tour is well organised and the riding is some of the best you'll ever do. We've made memories and friends for life.
4. Tuscany May 2008.
We just want to say thank you for the trip. We had a great time.
Helen and Roger Newman
Previous participants on Ross’s Italian tours have made comment on their experiences in the Tuscany region (Tuscany on two wheels: This boot is made for riding), they are posted on his website. I concur with all that is written – If you like bikes, love Italians, touring and food & wine then a holiday with a 50+year old larrikin named Ross Naylor is the way to go. The Tuscany trip as described (by better authors than myself) is entirely as written. I have nothing I can add to such comments. I had a truly fantastic time!
I thought I might offer a few gems on the choice of bike that might be of assistance to those considering one of Ross’s tours. As commented by others’ who have partaken in one of Ross’s adventures, there is quite a reasonable range of bikes available. I ride my FJR1300R to work every day and am enthusiastic enough to take the odd Sunday burn with like-minded people through the Adelaide hills as well as riding to the Phillip Island MotoGP each year. At the time I was in the market for a new bike I came close to purchasing a VFR800 Honda, and whilst the Yamaha was the final choice, I liked the Honda enough to have quite some respect for it, thus a VFR 800 was my choice of bike for the tours I did with Ross. The VFR proved to be a great bike for the Tuscany tour – Light, easy to manoeuvre, and it was quite comfortable even for my 183cm (6ft) frame. The power band of the VFR is very different from the Yamaha however. Having variable valve timing it didn’t have a lot of low down power up to about 3,000 RPM where-after there was more less straight line acceleration up 5,000 RPM or thereabouts at which time the other two valves in the VTEC motor swing into operation and the bike would take off like a banshee - provided the twist grip was wound back to the stop. If it wasn’t the bike just went ‘flat’. For a solo rider in the rolling hills of Tuscany these characteristics weren’t a problem. The Dolomites I found to be a very much different story! The power band on the VFR simply didn’t work well for me on the mountain roads. My opinion, of course, but when I do the Dolomite trip again (yes folks’ there’ll be another) I’ll be looking to hire something around 1200cc with good low down torque, especially if I’m going to tour ‘two up’.
Until one has ridden the Dolomites you cannot begin to appreciate how tight those hairpins really are. If you’re going up-hill you approach on the right hand side of the road and you often have to turn back almost parallel to the direction you came from whilst piloting the bike up an incline that almost reaches over your head between a point about 30 meters prior to entry to the corner to the same distance leaving the corner. These are not only tight corners but they can camber away quite significantly to toward the road you have just come over. Putting one’s foot down for stability on these bends is well neigh impossible in some places the camber is just too great - To stop would be to fall off. There are some photos that show the hairpin bends in the 2008 photo series on Ross’s website. I suggest if you planning on going on this tour they are worth looking at! On the odd occasion the corners in the Dolomites were so tight that my speed dropped to the point whereby the bike became unstable and I had to rely on acceleration to pull it upright. Had I been two up I have doubts that the Honda would have the low down pulling power to comfortably assist in such matters.
For those of you who have not toured Italy before I feel I should leave all you with the knowledge that there are not but a few of these hairpin corners. There are lots in that part of the world. By example, one free day (mentioned in my thoughts on the Dolomite tour) I took the Honda into Slovenia and cut back into Italy over the Eastern mountain ranges. As oft mentioned the Italian roads are first class with wonderful smooth tarsealed surfaces. As not oft mentioned the road builders in Slovenia took a slightly different approach in that tarsealed corners with truck traffic on them tend to eventually break up, thus they need maintenance. Being practical people the Slovaks lay the corners of their roads with cobblestones, and, let me assure anyone reading this page, riding a motorcycle over those little judder bars is hard work; especially when one is informed by a sign in the apex of the corner of the number of such turns still to go. On one road I travelled over I was greeted with a sign there were 90 corners in a row, then on the next corner another sign stating 89 corners to go (then 88 corners still to go, then 87 and so on, ad nauseam in fact) – Took me at least 5 glasses of red to stop my hands and head from bouncing up and down when I eventually made it back to the group. Hence I caution anyone contemplating the Dolomite tour that among factors in selecting your choice of bike should be those of low down pulling power and ones’ ability to get both feet flat on the ground when sitting astride the bike, rather than simply picking a bike from those offered on the basis that one many have occasionally wondered what it would be like to ride one.
In doing ‘back to back’ bike tours (Tuscany and the Dolomites) I needed to be able to carry everything I brought with me from Australia on the bike as I had to ride between those two venues. As others who have commented on Ross’s tours have observed there is no problem with having clothes washed at any of the overnight venues, thus I was able to make do with a travel chest consisting of underclothes, a few sweat (T) shirts, a heavy pullover and an extra pair of jeans. I purchased a small parachute bag with wheels from Cheap as Chips and only took with me what I could fit in same (crash helmet, light wet-weather pants and bike boots included). I had a waterproof ‘stuff sack’ that went completely go over the bag, and I held the lot on the back of the bike with a couple of large size ‘Andy Strapz. I wore my ezi-rider jacket - It all worked fine. I travelled real light and without any luggage problems for my entire trip, including the Isle of Man.
The close of Ross’s Tuscany tour preceded his Dolomite venture by one day. This necessitated him taking the autostrada from Colle Val de D’Elsa to Mondello de Lario in order to arrive in time to greet the new group. Leaving Colle I didn’t have the same time commitment so I travelled instead up the coast to La Spezia then cut through the Pass d’ Cise to Parma. I then pointed the VFR toward Bergano (via Cremona) to eventually arrive at Mondello de Lario just on dusk. I normally wouldn’t have taken a route that took me so far northward before cutting inland, but there was still snow on the Western mountain ranges and acting on Ross’s advice that the Pass d’ Cise was the least likely to be iced up off I duly went. I had no trouble; certainly proof that Ross’s knowledge of Italy is outstanding, and that, as others have written, his tours are very casual and you can certainly cut out to do your own thing if one feels so inclined.
I rode into Modelle de Lario about 8pm, just in time to meet with the Dolomite group across dinner. What a great way to meet other like minded people. I was able to take the ferry across Lake Como with them all next morning and tour the Moto Guzzi museum later that afternoon. Getting to know you could hardly have been easier, although to be fair there were no teetotallers among us so the sharing of wine and food, Italian style, may have assisted to some small extent in the ‘bonding processes’!
Ross, disorganised/organised as usual had it all planned. Behind that devil may care facade he presents goes an awful lot of planning - The man’s a motorcyclist through and through. Bulk luggage was stored that the hotel (‘take what you need for five days folks, we’re off’), up through Chaivenna to St. Moritz (Switzerland) for lunch – About this time I distinctly remember wondering what the poor people were doing, but I was able to dismiss the thought from my mind without too much real effort. St. Mortiz must be one of the few places on earth that the local sailing club (about 10 cadet sized vessels) is sponsored jointly by Mercedes and BMW. Can’t say I’ve had similar success in my finding a sponsor effort back in Oz. Well feed and watered we then transversed to Pass dal Fuorn to exit Switzerland near the Italian Village of Tubre. It was then on Bolzano and a stop at the village of Colle di Villa for coffee before proceeding to the mountain village of Cavalese where the Hotel La Stua was to be our temporary home for the next two or so days. Did I mention Ross’s frequently planned coffee stops – The man’s got to be a folk hero in planning those!
The Hotel La Stua is a bikers dream, both in location and in service. The owner and his daughter both ride and often do so. The hotel is well located within the Dolomitie, so much so to the point that it really is the apex for any number of day tours that can be organised around a cloverleaf pattern over a three or four day (or longer) period. A fascination of the stay there was that the owner had modified a retired four cylinder bike motor to dispense the local brew from the sparkplug holes – Fascinating, and but another small reminder as to the effort Ross has put into planning a suitable routes and accommodation for his motorcycle tours. I also noted the clientele at La Stua was mostly motorcyclists, many of them from neighbouring German and Austria. Our group felt right at home instantly. It was interesting ‘reading’ one of the many bike magazines that were lying around for guests to enjoy. Whilst my Italian is effectively non-existent it was fun working out the exchange rates and comparing prices and models against those of Oz.
It might have been an age thing, but that aside, prior to our tour Ross had decided that, his livelihood dependant somewhat on his not being hurt in an accident, he would invest in an ‘airbag jacket’. Proudly purchased in Hon Kong he made the point of coupling this device to his bike every time he got on it. Yep, you guessed it! The day surely had to come whereby he would forget to unhook it prior to dismounting. The mountains were great, the winding roads were first class, but one of our group highlights was Ross doing a really good impression of the Michelin Man, thus reminding all that if in possession of such a jacket to disconnect the airbag before demounting the bike. I don’t think Ross was all that amused when it went off, but the rest of us surely took great amusement in his misfortune – We took photos as well!
If you want spectacular scenery and great winding roads then the Dolomites have it all. We may have been fortunate with the weather in that each day was rain free (although some of the group had some precipitation fall around them on the last day). I can’t begin to list all the mountain passes we transversed, but the Pass di Pennes Penserjoch, the Val di Penne and the Val. d’ Eggental all stood out in my mind as being outstanding, for both their beauty and for their winding roads – An absolute motorcyclist’s dream. On day four of our tour we left the western Dolomites and the hospitality of the Hotel La Stua to position ourselves at Auronzo in the eastern Dolomites. It’s a fairly easy ride with a distance of around 130km between Cavelese and Auronzo de Cadore, whereupon the Hotel Juventus was to be our ‘home’ for the next few days. I should just mention, indeed possibly gloat, that in order to get to Auronzo we had to go through the Pass d’ Pordoni to Arraba then cut through the Pass d’ Palzarego to arrive at our new destination at the Hotel Juventus (in Auronzo de Cadore). What a wonderful ride!
The following next day I believe Ross had intended to spend time exploring the ‘twisties’ of the eastern Dolomites, however, some of the ladies on tour wanted to do some shopping in the nearby town of Cavalese (the sun glass manufacturing capital of Italy). A few of the guys then decided they wanted to go ‘blasting’ the windy roads, and one couple opted for a trip ‘down memory lane’ by visiting long time lost relatives who lived nearby – Thus a free day was announced (group dynamics at its finest), and that’s kind of when I ‘lost the plot’. Waking up early I ‘snuck out’ for a bit of a ride’, which turned into a 500km marathon whereby I was enjoying myself so much (the weather was absolutely perfect) that I cut up into Austria going around the side of Lake di Dobbiaco then heading eastward to arrive in Lienz. From there I took a beautiful scenic road (where the mountains smooth out into alluvial pasturelands) to Spittal before riding further eastward to Villach. Having gotten that far I figured I should probably go back and since there wasn’t much point in going over roads I had already ridden on, I thought I may as well do some of Slovakia as well. I rode south to Tarvisio (back into Italy) before then cutting east again to the town of Kranjska Gora (into Solvakia on the way), then I ran parallel with the Italian border through Vsic, Trenta, Socka, Bovec and Zagar before coming back into Italy at Uccea. Then it was over another pass (the Pass di Tanamea ) through to Faedis before proceeding north Trecento. Going further northward one passed through Gemona, Tolmezzo and the Forni di Sopra before I finally returned to Auronzo around 6:30 that night (506km round trip) - Just in time for dinner!
Next day started with Ross trying to work out who ate what during our stay at the Juventus, a painful experience for us all, the group watching Ross, and Ross using his tremendous repertoire of accounting skills to reach a formulae we could all accept. Somehow, without too much bloodshed and the shredding of wallets, we managed to reach agreement and were soon off on our return run to Cavelese. Heading northward to Austria (Toblach) then turned west through Niederdorf before stopping for lunch at Monguelfor, where-after we promptly proceeded to get lost trying to take a shortcut to Valdora (to get to Bruneck being the travel objective). Fortunately for us we were able to flag down two kind ladies in a Panda who turned out to be going in the same direction. Thus, duckling like (and at about the same speed, I hasten to add), we were able to follow them as they transversed the back-roads to bring us into Valdora over quite a high range of hills. For myself, following those kind women at such low speed was actually one of the highlights of the tour. I found it absolutely encapsulating to have time to clearly smell the different types of foliage at the side of the road and gaze at the steep valleys and little farmsteads dotted all along the countryside – I guess that’s about the only thing you can do when you have to follow a Panda up a steep hill on a motorcycle anyway! Bruneck eventually passed it was south to St. Lorenzen then S. Martino before a compulsory stop for coffee at Pederoa. From there it was down to Corvara, up over the Pass di Gardena to Canazei then finally back to Cavelese, whereat we had kind of a ‘last supper’ with members of the tour group. The next day we would travel back to Mondello de Lario and say farewell to those who were departing that night for other places.
Next morning broke overcast but with blue sky between the clouds. A splinter group, myself included, decided to attempt to go over the Silvo Pass on the return leg to Mondello. The remained of the party elected to travel via Lake di Garda. My group cut through Monttagna then Bolzano then into Switzerland to only find the roads to the Pass were closed. Silvo pass is one of the highest in Europe, so in retrospect this may have been expected. Demoralised and done over like last year’s Xmas turkey we then licked our wounds and took the same route back to Mondello de Lario that us Dolomite travellers came over some six days ago. Lunch again at San Moritz (bummer), and then on to Mondello to arrive a few hours early than the rest of the group who went via Lake di Garda. In the face of all adversary however, we of the splinter group were able to regain our composure and turn our disappointment around by drinking much beer and undertaking the expenditure of monies at Agostini’s motorcycle shop (owned by the daughter of the real thing folks) prior to the arrival of the others from a more southerly direction. A plus for us Silvo pass disappointees was that we didn’t have much rain at all - The Lake di Gardia expeditionaries eventually arrived looking decidedly the wetter for their efforts.
All part of the very unique experience of motorcycle touring Italy, folks. If you’re reading this then don’t hesitate – Book one. We are all only on the planet but once!
6. This article was written by Mandy O'Hara, who went on one of our 2006 tours.
Toscana su due ruote (Tuscany on 2 wheels)
For those of you that want me to cut to the chase (you know who I am talking about, the same ones that turn to the last page in a Murder Mystery), I’ll tell you now, if there is one thing you need to do in life, it is tour Tuscany on a motorbike. And not any motorbike, but the motorbike that typifies the best of Italy -a Ducati. It is FANTASTICO.
Which is one of the reasons I am feeling pretty glum today. This time last week, my heart was racing, watching Troy Bayliss become 2006 World Champion -I was at the World Superbikes in Imola. Now I am looking at a speeding fine, collected less than 24hours back in Australia whilst enjoying a quick squirt up to Toodyay. Not that I am upset about the fine, what is depressing is that for 8 days we toured the twistiest and fastest roads I’ve been on in my life. We probably saw 1 cop once every 2 days and they thought we were piss week compared to the Italian bikers on the road. Those guys ride FAST. The Italian police don’t sweat the small stuff, to quote Dazza “unless you are involved in organised crime, don’t worry about the police”. Oh, well its lucky I didn’t buy that Armani bag after all, now I can feel virtuous that my donation to the WA government will make our roads and state a better place to live and ride .
Bayliss at Imola
Tour Organisation
So for those of you that are interested in a fleshed out story, how did all of this start? About 18months ago I saw an advertisement for Bike Tours of Tuscany in a copy of Cycle Torque. I showed my husband Jeff and it was like a light switched on inside his head, “we are going to do this” he said and pretty soon we were saving all our pennies and had recruited 4 other friends to come along. Jeff contacted Ross Naylor of European Motorcycle Adventures (www.europeanmotorcycleadventures.com) who has been running motorbike tours of Tuscany for the last ~4 years. Ross has sussed out some of the most beautiful areas of Tuscany to visit, the windiest roads to ride and an excellent 600 year old fully renovated Tuscan Villa that has been converted into spacious apartments to use as your home base while touring. There is always a certain amount of doubt when you organise these things, especially if you haven’t had anyone you know recommend it. We needn’t have worried, Ross knows Tuscany well, has plenty of local Italian contacts (which is crucial in Italy), and he is a really easy going bloke that loves motorbikes and biking –it was perfect.
We decided we would organise a 4.5week holiday in Italy. We arranged with Ross to start our 7 day bike tour a couple of days after we arrived in Italy. Our accommodation during the bike tour and for most of the 4.5 weeks was to be at the 600 year old Villa “Tana de Lepri” in the mediaeval village of “Colle di Val d’Elsa. We really wanted to get to know Tuscany, and there are sooooo many places to visit. The combination of staying mainly at 1 location, doing the bike tour and having a 7 seater van as backup transport meant we had an easy but consistent pace during the holiday without getting bored or burnt out.
Roma to Toscana
We arrived at Rome airport at ~7am on Sunday morning (03/09/06) and were greeted by a human traffic jam trying to pass through Rome immigration. All the normal airport staff must have been at mass. Three immigration staff were trying to “process” ~300 to 400 people jammed cheek to jowl after 24 hours of travelling at temps of ~300C –it could have got really ugly if it wasn’t for our excitement and optimism at starting our first holiday in Italy (at its worst it was just really smelly).
For the mathematicians amongst us you will have worked out that even if each immigration officer processed one person per minute, it was going to take ~2hours to get through immigration –and it did! Anyway, before we knew it we had found our luggage (after searching about a kilometre of luggage conveyor to discover as new flights arrive the uncollected luggage from the previous flights is thrown onto the floor in a room the length of an aeroplane hangar with hundreds of piles of uncollected luggage) & our car lease company, and we were being bundled off into a shuttle van to pick up our brand new Peugeot 7 seater which was to be our transport when we weren’t on 2 wheels.
The car lease company turned out to have its premises out on an industrial block wasteland next to a concrete works. It was when we arrived here that thoughts of the Italian mafia and organised crime crept into our heads. Would we be robbed, murdered and never heard of again? Was some Australian diplomat going to get the heads of 6 Ozzie tourists in his bed because he had snubbed a local crime figure? But we needn’t have worried (?!) Jeff quickly sorted out our van and the paperwork with the staff (he had done the most homework learning Italian, and regardless of what people tell you, unless you are going to spend all your time in major towns, you need to learn some Italian to be able to function in Italy), we had jammed the van to the gills with luggage and passengers (next time we’ll get an 8 seater or travel lighter) the GPS was loaded with the maps of Italy and we were ready to rock n roll.
And rock n roll we did, learning to drive a manual car with the gear shift and wipers on your right hand side and indicators on your left took a bit of getting used to. Because Jeff had organised the car and paperwork, he was the driver. Apart from giving the clutch a bit of a thrashing when first coming to terms with the car, and trying to indicate changes of directions with the windscreen wipers, he did a great job driving a team of tired but excited Ozzies towards Naples. What, Naples???, you thought Tuscany was north and Naples was south didn’t you. Well you were right. We missed our turnoff to Firenze (=Florence), because I hadn’t come to terms with the GPS before we headed off and the voice instructions were inaudible. Luckily for us, Stan saw an exit that would allow us to do a U turn (rarely possible on Autostradas and Superstradas in Italy due to concrete barriers dividing opposing traffic) and we were finally on the A1 heading towards Florence (Hooray!).
Colle di Val d’Elsa and Tana de’ Lepri
We took about 3-4 hours to get to our destination of Colle di Val d’Elsa and our villa Tana de Lepri. This was a pretty conservative pace, the Peugeot wallowed like an old sow in the corners with lots of weight in the back (Stan, Greg and ~180kg of luggage) and the roads are about ¾ the width of roads in Australia. The van didn’t have the slim lines of our sexy Ducati’s so with less than 50 cm separating us from traffic in adjacent lanes we didn’t test out the accelerator too hard. Also the GPS and I had a bit of a crisis trying to navigate the skinny one-way mediaeval streets of Colle di Val d’Elsa (Colle for short) and after a few trips the wrong way down the oneway streets we managed to find our way to our villa Tana de Lepri (Tana for short) on the outskirts of town (Jeff and I narrowly avoided a marital screaming match, although the atmosphere was a little tense to say the least).
That night we walked in to Colle (~10 minutes), found a restaurant (The Pisto) wolfed down some excellent pasta, salad and red wine like there was no tomorrow before returning to Tana and sleeping the sleep of the truly exhausted.
The villa Tana de Lepri has been renovated into 10 self contained apartments. Take a look on the website www.tanadelepri.com it was a terrific place to stay, well equipped, neat, clean and cheap (cost about $60 per person per night depending upon the exchange rate). The villa is run by 2 lovely Italians Enrica and Ilaria who communicate well in English and do all they can to help you with information about touring around Tuscany, good places to eat etc. Ross Naylor from European Motorcycle Adventures sourced this place out and it is a testament to Ross’s understanding of people, good sense and judgement, the place was great.
Colle di Val d’Elsa
The bike tour
Our bikes had arrived a couple of days before our tour was scheduled to start. We were all keen to get out for a ride -were we allowed to go before the tour guide arrived? too bad, Enrica (one of the delightful Italian ladies who ran the villa we were staying at) gave us the keys so why look a gift horse in the mouth? In the end we decided we should walk into the local town –Colle di Val d’Elsa first and get our bearings then get some supplies in the car. Then we’d take the bikes for a zoom either that afternoon or the next morning.
Well we failed to follow the first rule of life - never send guys shopping, especially not for grog. The residents of Colle thought that they had been invaded by the 3 foundation members of “I’m an Alcoholic and proud of it”. By early afternoon the tables were laden with antipasta through the shopping efforts of the girls and bottles of beer, red and white wine were being consumed at an ever increasing rate. In the end (~8pm), each person had consumed on average 2 bottles of wine and the boys also managed to get through innumerable bottles of beer. Needless to say there was no bike riding that afternoon and there were a few sore heads and green stomachs the next day, but the temptation of testing out our motorbikes was too great we had to get those babies on the road.
So what bikes did we hire I hear you all ask? Well, there were 3 Ducati’s –a Multistrada (For Jeff), ST3 (for Stan and Kerry) and ST4S (for me) and 2 wannabe Ducati’s – a BMW RT1150 aka Battlestar Gallactica (for Greg and Natasha) and a 650 single BMW owned by Ross (the tour operator who wasn’t due until that evening). I was particularly keen to try out the ST4S. I ride an 800 SS here in Perth (having only got my open motorbike licence in January 2006). The thought of that 996 motor had me licking my lips in anticipation –yeah baby, lets go!
Jeff led the group on a ride to Volterra –another mediaeval town, an easy ~20km on the main road out of Colle –piece of cake, last one there is a rotten egg. Well the first shock I got was how heavy that ST4S was compared to my SS, once she was going she was a dream but I had no chance of sitting on her and pushing her in any direction except downhill! Oh well, I just had to be smart when I parked and stopped her (or muscle up quick!). The road to Volterra was a typical Tuscan country road –narrow and twisty, but the surface was pretty good. Traffic was pretty quiet, although oncoming traffic was always a worry. The Italians don’t mind sharing your side of the road, indeed, they consider it theirs, which on a left handed hairpin made us realise pretty quickly that line huggers were going to be temporary Australians. And that road to Volterra had plenty of hairpins, chicanes and corner after corner that would make your eyes spin in their sockets. What did I say about rotten eggs, ooh I’m feeling a bit seasick. Lucky for me Jeff was more sensible about the ride to Volterra than I would have been if I had been leading (the throttle on that ST4S had my heart going overtime yeeehaaah). There were plenty of corners that I would have over cooked probably ending up as a bonnet mount or road kill. The secret to most of the Tuscan country roads that Jeff would repeat over and over was throttle and rear brake and most of the corners were 2nd or 1st gear.
Once we arrived in Volterra we realised the significance of the Italian scooter and motorbike population AND tourism. There were wall to wall bikes, regardless of the fact all of the signs seemed to be “No Parking”. Mega tour buses were moving cheek to jowl with pedestrians and 2 or 3 wheeled vehicles all trying to navigate at slow speed on cobblestones (aaaarrghhhh I should have hired a 749 or a monster, at least I could push it around). Anyway this was the moment of realisation for most of us, in Italy need was going to outweigh obeying road signs/ rules. We needed to park and if there was any available footpath we would use it, otherwise we would still be riding around now trying to find a legal park.
Volterra, like many of the Tuscan towns we visited can trace its origins back to the Etruscans –we are talking >700BC. This place was seriously old and there was plenty of evidence for this in the amazing archaeological ruins, existing buildings and trades here eg the goldsmiths and jewellers. Volterra is also known for its beautiful alabaster carving.
After spending most of the day in Volterra we headed back to Colle, feeling mostly pleased with our successful unchaperoned ride, but also a little guilty that we had taken the bikes out without the tour guide. That evening we met Ross in person, he had just spent the last couple of days riding his 650 BMW single from Brittany. We were soon to discover that Ross delights in imposing upon himself the impossible schedule. The fact that he had flown from Australia to Brittany, picked up his bike and then been riding ~non-stop for the last 3 days across Europe before starting our bike tour was business as usual for Ross. He is also a pretty fatalistic guy, although we weren’t supposed to have taken the bikes out, he recognised we got away with it unscathed and wasn’t going to make a song and dance about it.
Over the next 7 days we visited the beautiful mediaeval cities of Monteriggioni, Certaldo, Massa Maritima, San Gimignano, Sienna and Lucca riding over hill and down dale through forests and farm land on spectacular twisty country roads, venturing occasionally onto the superfast Autostradas and Superstradas. We also rode across to the Western coastline visiting beautiful towns like Castiglione della Pescala (where we went for a swim in the Meditteranean ocean), Porto San Stefano, Talamone, Viareggio and Porto Ercole where we spent the night feasting on more wonderful Italian food and wine and dreaming about all the amazing yachts in the harbour.
Porto Ercole - the view from one of the rooms
One of the highlights for me was our ride to Bologna to visit the Ducati Factory and Museum. If you ever get the chance to go to Italy you must go to the Ducati factory and Museum. Here the passion of the Ducatisti is palpable (and the stuff you can get from the factory outlet has to be seen to be believed!!!).
