Best of Italy. #1

Welcome to Rome   so now the time has come. We are in Rome, the eternal city, but we will not stay here forever. Tomorrow we have our first riding day. The most beautiful roads in the heart of Italy are waiting for us. Today we get the keys to our motorcycles. And have our welcome briefing. So there is not much exciting to report yet. That will certainly change in the next few days. stay tuned Franz and Thomas  

first touch with italy   We started our first riding day with fair weather .  Grazie Roma! No troubles getting out of the city and we followed small sideroads till Narni, our first coffee stop. Narni is the very center of Italy, they say so! Entering Umbria the province is also called the green heart of Italy we have lunch at Montefalco, a smalll medieval village and some good restaurants. The cyprus alley and the view  of Assisi are a must for fotographers. After dinner we joined a medieval singig contest, an event for locals with a long history too. see you  Thom and Franz

Turns, Italien livestyle, Rossi   So this is it, driving day number 2. After a short morning briefing we set off, leaving Assisi, that small town where we have experienced a lot in a short time. And make first stretch on the highway. Our destination is far. And we want to experience Italy's most beautiful roads. So we skip the less interesting part and plunge after a few kilometers in the curvy fun. Along the "Lago Trasimeno" it goes up into the mountains, at the top we enjoy the view with a first coffee. Countless curves later we reach the highlight of today, Cortona. The town is known for its charm and it served as the setting for the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun". Unplanned yet gladly taken, a Porsche club made a stop at the gates of the city. And when we thought oh how cool, what a coincidence rolled a seemingly endless column of Vespas and old Italian sports cars past us. How "Italian" can a stop please be. Another 1000 curves and a delicious lunch later we arrive in "Urbino", whose most famous son besides Raphael is actually Valentino Rossi. And we realize that we have just driven on roads which Rossi must have also driven on. Kind of cool. Apart from that, the architecture of the city is impressive and the "gelato" is excellent. The last kilometers to San Marino are no less curvy than the routes in the morning. But the landscape is noticeably different. Gentle hills and interesting rock formations accompany us up to San Marino. 

  Passes and Curves   Wow what a riding day, average temperature aroung 65F, a little bit foggy in the morning and then Monday morning in the Abruzzian Mountains. Almost no traffic good maintained roads the whole day long. Coffeebreak, a great antipasto picnic by Thomas , some sightseeing in historical sights , an the afternoon the passo consuma. Our historic Villa waitet us allready for check in, so we are ready for Florence. Tom and Franz  

    Florence   Restday, well, evereybody does it in his way, but boring time we never had, look at the pictures.....

liquid an real sunshine   The next day of riding is upon us. Today we leave Florence and head for Volterra. The view from the window of our cozy villa at the gates of Florence makes us initially not very optimistic. It rains now nevertheless. But the timing could not be better, because the driving day is short. We reach the place of our overnight stay already at noon. There we can decide whether we want to ride a few more kilometers or not. pretty cool or not? On our way, however, the Manhattan of the Middle Ages is waiting for us "San Gimignano, a very interesting and quite unique place. Just in time for lunch we reach Volterra. Then the group splits up, Richie wants to ride to the sea while Bob prefers to rest a bit and explore the city. No problem.

    Chianti     Durch die Weingärten des Chianti, in der Kellerei Querceto, der Dom in Siena und zum Abschluss unser Hotel im Kloster in den Hügeln vor der Stadt....     Chianti   The rolling hills of Chianti, visiting a tratitional vinery, and finally reache Siena, and to the last our hotel, another charming cloister

 the beauty of variety   After having extensively enjoyed the unique charm of our hotel at the gates of Siena. Today we set out for Pienza, that model city of Pius the 2nd. Of course we could take the fastest way but we are here to experience Italy on the motorcycle so we ride in serpentines towards our destination to really not miss any great road. In addition, there is again much to see today. We start after a short briefing and leave Siena behind us. In the hinterland, countless curves await us again this morning. Our first stop is the ruin of an old monastery in the middle of nowhere. The building has its own charm. We continue to an impressive monastery complex at the foot of an extinct volcano. We admire the beautiful paintings inside. Slowly we realize that around us rain is coming. But the serpentine tactics work and we reach almost dry our picnic area, where Franz spoiled us with typical Italian delicacies. The last 100km of the day we complete mostly dry. A stop in Montalcino, home of the famous Brunello must not be missed. What a day

  Fairwell Italy Well, our last ridingday, thanks to Bob and Richie for riding with us. the last curvy roads, and again into the traffic of rome. We hope we will see you soon,   Thomas and Franz