Italian bikes

twowheeler

two wheels are best
Stashed the VFR in Troon and caught an early morning flight to Italy, where we stayed for a week and a half for a birthday celebration in Brenda's family, no riding, but plenty to see bike-wise. So in no particular order . . . .

The Ducati Factory in Bologna.

These bikes were lined up out the front as part of "Monster Day", which I learnt was an advertising campaign primarily aimed at women. A large organised bunch of riders shortly rode away on these and other Monsters out of shot -




The factory was really interesting. No photos are allowed within it, but we were escorted around every area except the race division, watching various stages of assembly. Different bikes have different assembly lines - we followed the Panigale line. Near the end we watched #28 (of 500) Panagale 1299 Superleggera get its test run on the rolling road. If you have 80,000 euros :dollars: you too can own its 200bhp and 155kg of carbon fibre excess. The tour is quite smart marketing IMHO. There is obvious pride and happy workers everywhere you looked, and most of the bikes are pretty appealing, to me anyway.


No restriction on Museum photos though :wink: -



















A 900cc beast, complete with kickstart, the seat must be at least a metre off the ground :eek: -













Fogerty's 916. Check out the early carbon brakes -










Casey Stoner's -







Spent about 2.5 hours there all up and enjoyed it very much. The taxi in the morning from Bologna Centrale train station to the factory cost about 20euros, which was OK, but I had lots of time to kill coming back so walked 4ish km (including a couple of wrong turns) to Borgo Panigale train station and paid 1euro for a return journey, yeah :D :credit: .
 

twowheeler

two wheels are best
Rome -

Scooters rule here -




It'll buff out -




In the Vatican, the several million people we shared it with that day just out of shot :shock: -




Pope Sixtus. Can't imagine confessing anything to this bloke -




Roman Centurions on their iPhone7s -




Dinner on a warm rooftop bar in Rome, does it get any better :cdle -

 

twowheeler

two wheels are best
Then some quick trains -




Fiat's new push-me-pull-me light truck -




Venice. No bikes obviously but an intriguing place. Best at dawn and dusk, like most places I guess -

Dorsoduro at dawn -







San Marco -




Main Lagoon from Cannaregio -




Murano -




The things you find when you wander about. A gondola dry-dock, at San Trovaso -




Dorsoduro, a couple of alleys away from our airbnb -




Dorsoduro at night -




Then Ciao :woot: ! Left Brenda to it and winged my way back over The Channel to Scotland, to pickup the VFR for a fortnight's Tour de Ecosse -

 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Florence, where 2 and 3 wheelers rule -









:drool::drool::drool:



What a sweet cluster of shots!
There is something to that place that just can't be found anywhere else.
And it's incomparable, timeless and simply its own way to look at life and the world.
:clap::glu
 
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