SPT 17011 - Corsica & Sardinia Exclusive
We spent our first day attending the MotoGP race in Mugello in Italy close to our starting point Florence. Florence is the capital of the Tuscany region and it's perfect for motorcycling - of course. We took the bikes to ride for half an hour to the Mugello racetrack and spent almost the whole day there watching the Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP races. They put on a great show and everybody loved it. Afterwards the motorcycles saved us a huge amount of time because traffic wasn't even moving but we could go by and having a cold beer at the end of the day.
Our second day was our first big riding day leaving Florence and heading for Livorno, the ferry port. On the way we stopped in Vinci, Leonardo Da Vinci's birthplace and we had a lovely coffee and visited his museum. Afterwards we had a walk through the medieval town of Lucca before reaching our destination.
Today we had to get up early, grab an Espresso and then head for the ferry port close by to our hotel in Livorno. The big ferry took us in 4,5 hours straight to Bastia on Corsica. Our first ride on French territory took us around the Northern peninsula called Cap Corse. Plenty of sweepers and twisties awaited us and some incredible views along the coastline. On the afternoon we had some icecream in Ile Rousse and ended up in Calvi which was going to be our stay for two nights.
On our first restday we had the chance to take an actual rest and enjoy the magnificent little town of Calvi right on the coast with all its views and streets and shops and sightseeing or go for a ride into the mountains of Corsica. Going for a ride I present you now the pictures of our spectacular ride up the Haut-Asco ski resort area.
Leaving Calvi after the restday wasn't really hard because tons of twisties and sweepers along the Western coastline of Corsica awaited us. In the middle of the Calanche rocks lied Porto, our first coffee stop. The area between Piana and Porto is also Unesco World Heritage and a magnificent piece of road construction. The road is like glued to the cliffs and the colour of the cliffs is just spectacular. We rode all along the coast until we reached Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica.
Leaving Ajaccio we had a long way to go because we wanted to cross the whole island to reach the Eastern side of Corsica. The best saying to describe the day would be 'The journey is its own reward' by Konfuzius as well as 'This is my favourite riding day' by Michael the tour guide. A gazillion turns making our way into the mountains of the island was very refreshing compared to the 'mostly straight' days before.... Our trip of Corsica ended in the magical city of Bonifacio, the southernmost city and probably the most picturesque.
This day we had to leave beautiful Corsica with a short ferry ride and we entered into Italy again - Sardinia here we come! Along the magnificent Costa Smeralda, where the water glows greenish in the sunlight, we made our way almost down to Olbia before turning west and crossing the whole island on smaller curvy roads to end up in Alghero, a picturesque town right at the Mediterranean.
Another restday and - oh boy - so many options to choose from! Lucky as we are the World Rallye Championship is in exactly in this town at this weekend. And we have a day off! Not to miss any good riding or sightseeing we slightly changed the original schedule to just EVERYTHING! So first we headed out in the morning to go for an awesome ride in the inland around Alghero, twisty roads with no traffic at all. Then we rode back through Alghero and headed north to visit the Rallye stage right before lunch time. Holy smokes - that was a spectacle! Rallye cars flying by us in dust and rocks and people all over the hills and along the coastline! What an incredible experience! Then we rode back to Alghero right in time to watch the MotoGP race at a bar right in front of the hotel. And then we walked around town to enjoy the last happenings of the Rallye winners ceremony and all the people strawling around. Quite a successful day I would say!
Even though our rest day wasn't really much of a rest we definitely enjoyed it. So lets head out to another great day of riding! Our first top was the little town of Bosa. Some say it's one of the most beautiful little Italian towns with it's colorful houses and the castle sitting on top of the hill right in front of a river! Next we stopped for the biggest natural arch on the Sardinian island. Nature at its best! Afterwards we didn't have much sightseeing left but plenty of turns, mountain roads, ghost towns, little villages, more turns, twisties, even more turns and so much fun!
Our last day on Sardinia has arrived! Not that we left right in the morning, no! We had a relaxing day going north and enjoying the countryside of this amazing island once again. First stopp was the town of Orgosolo. This town is famous for over a hundred paintings or cartoons on the walls of the houses. Those paintings criticise regional, Italian and world wide problems. After a lovely coffee there and some pictures we continued to a really old cultural site. A typical Nuraghe town, the oldest civilisation found on Sardinia. It was really hot though so in the afternoon we stopped right at the beach to enjoy a swim. Look at the clear water! What a colour! It really was a great day to end our trip on Sardinia. We enjoyed our dinner in Olbia and headed for the overnight ferry back to the mainland of Italy.
Day 11 - the last day - already. Time flies when you're busy riding motorcylces all day long on two stunning islands in the Mediterranean. For our last day we had some special stopps planned. First off the ferry we headed for the famous city of Pisa with its Torre Pendente - better known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After a very early breakfast we still were the very first ones to walk the square with the dome and the tower. By the time we were done the tourist masses just ran in and we could leave happy on the bikes. Afterwards we rode east to look for some little backcountry roads and our last lunch in a very good restaurant. It's also the Chianti region so one ore more bottles were sold as souvenirs I heard. And sonner than wanted we were back in Florence where it all started! What a great trip! Ladies and gentlemen, it was a pleasure to ride with you and all of you made this an outstanding adventure! See you soon somewhere else on this little planet! Be well and ride safe!