Tuscany on a Harley

Tuscany on a Harley

23 Sep 2016
/Robert Stoll
/Tom Friden
Day 8: Volterra -Orvieto   Todays route will take us from Tuscany back tu Umbria, more exactly to Orvieto. Starting in Volterra we will do a stop in Siena, known for its famous horse race in the old city center at the Campo. if you believe the habizants it's the most beautiful square in the world, so a must stop over with our steel horses. After that our journay will take us through perfect Tuscany landscape, vineyards, sunflowers, cypress lined roads, rolling hills and olive trees. Our destination, Orvieto, is a beautiful city high up on a plateau. Have look yourself and enjoy, we did so far! DAY 7......."rest day"........    ride from Volterra to San Gimingnano...... a cool village with famous towers, the rich residents from days gone by in this village built towers, all trying to out do one another as a sign of power and wealth.....but MORE importantly, the WORLD CHAMPION of Gelato has a shop here,   and you know we are huge on Gelato on this trip.........      a taste festival indeed!!!!    Not only great gelato, but a picturesque town to enjoy it in!! Sensation overload indeed!!  OH, and these were among the funnest roads, the riding was off the hook!! DAY 6......    Florence to Volterra.....after a splendid magical experience in Florence we hit the road again.  This time we had out sights on Volterra, a charming quiet little village with some ancient Roman tuins near by...quite the change fro m the hustle and bussle of Florence.  The ride was superb, plenty of beautiful country roads. lined with tree line canopies, and even a quit stretch along the Tyrrhenia sea.....   OH, and we saw a leaning buildeing in Pisa too!!! IMAGINE That!!!!!  Day 4: Florence Rest day in Florence doesn't mean that you lay back, of course you could but it would be a shame to miss this city and its outstanding art and architecture it has to show. You will be blown away by the craziness of art! I promise! and don't forget to try a "Gelato" or two. Enjoy this day. Day 3: Assisi to Firenze (Florence)   Wow! What a day...Kickstand up at 9am and just back from a nice and funny night city tour at 11pm. So the day started with light rain just two minutes before the bikes left the hotel Cenacolo in Assisi, but only 15 minutes later the sky cleared up and before we reached the first highlight of the day "the lake Trasimeno" the roads where dry again and ready to have good fun up on our way to Florence. After the lake Trasimeno we visited the old town Cortona, yes Cortona, not Corona. ;) Time for a small city walk around, before we continued to Arezzo. We saw a lot of fabulous things til here but the day still had more to offer. Next on the riding menu was the "passo de consuma", what a blast up there: empty roads, nice views and some big Harleys getting thrown around the curves. Then a must do, the visit of the Harley Davidson shop in Firenze, means shopping time! And then the most outstanding part, the crazy architecture and art during a night city walk...   Just WOW!!! Day two.....    Assis... "Rest day".....  this is a term which does not really apply...about the only rest we get is not bringing luggage to the van....    we came here to ride, and ride we did. The hills and roads in the Assisi area are full of twists and turns, up and downs...we even went over a pass Passo Del Monte Subasio  .......it was a bit chilly up there for about three minutes...... then we came back to Assis for a great pjzza and a walking tour of this charming little town..... tomorrow we hit the road and our goal is Florence. Sun greeted us in Rome this morning after a rainy stormy night.......we headed north through the twisty roads towards Passo Corese on to Terni and finally to Assisi.........   what a wonderful landscapre to treasure, beautiful vistas and fun roads.  It was a great ride today..........   and this is only the begining....and once again...."this is why we ride"