Quit our jobs, sold our home and everything in it, gone riding...

[Lightcycle]

After a picnic lunch on the city walls, we head back on the bikes in the afternoon to ride around the countyside. Our goal in Europe is to stay off the Autostrada as much as possible, to see as much of the country and save a bit of money as well.

We found a great winding, country lane that ran along the ridge of a hill, scenery on either side of us

Farms all around us, with the odd villa dotting the landscape

Our loop around the area takes us down to Urbino where we stop again in the late afternoon. You can't throw a tortellini without hitting a twisty road, and our favorites were the ones around Urbania and Urbino. I remarked to Neda that it's been so long since we just rode twisty roads for the enjoyment of it. Much of our Latin American trek was destination oriented, instead of focusing on the road itself.

Riding through the Piazza Rinascmento, past the Duomo di Urbino

Urbino has a real renaissance feel to it, as if there's a Leonardo da Vinci behind every door sketching fantastical inventions. We had a really good time, wandering (and riding) around the narrow cobblestone streets of town, taking in it's picturesque beauty.

Not sure if we were allowed to ride through the Piazza, still a bit of the residual Latin American mentality...

Piazza della Repubblica

He made us an offer we couldn't refuse

Marveling at the roofs of the porticos in Urbino

There was a kite festival in the town recently,
and there were decorations above all the streets

So pretty!

Leonarda in training, sketching the Ducal Palace of Urbino

More kites and palaces

Outta my way! Neda zooming through the narrow streets of Urbino!

Feels so good to be wandering around on two wheels again!

 

[MacDoc]

Back on the road....yay.

If you want effortless winding roads and have an iPhone this is the best $50 you will ever spend.

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/tomtom-europe/id355680531?mt=8

I've had a million dollars of fun from it and when I'm tired of twists I hit the fastest option and I'm at my destination the quickest way.

I like always knowing I'm generally moving towards the destination even if it's the twistiest roads. ( just be cautious in towns - it can lead to some rather dire back alleys )

 

[xxrider]

Use this app all the time however it sometimes wants to take me on a gravel road

 

[Lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/175.html

My parents visited Perugia a few years ago and they really enjoyed it, so we decided to take a couple of days to explore the area. We're doing a pretty good job staying off the Autostrada, but I think we might have to hit a couple of highways if we want to see the rest of Italy before the next Ferragosto arrives!

More scenic rolling countryside roads

We stop in Urbania for an ice cream and poke around the deserted city streets Italians observe a strict schedule when it comes to working, or I should say, NOT working. We always seem to do our traveling and wandering around during their early afternoon siesta, and we're always surprised when all the grocery stores and gas stations are closed until the early evening. Nobody is on the streets. It's like we're the last people on Earth.

Early morning view from a Perugia farmhouse We found a place to set up our tent for a couple of nights in a farmhouse just outside of Perugia. It's a beautiful place with great views of the sunrise over the mountains in the distance, and I am up uncharacteristically before dawn to try to get some pictures.

For once, I am up before Neda!

Like we're on a movie set that calls for a stereotypical Italian farmhouse!

No Neda, we can't take him with us...

I *LOVE* being on two wheels in Italy! There seems to be a vehicular food chain in Italy. Unlike many countries where scooters and motorcycles are at the bottom (just above bicycles), two-wheelers are actually on the top of the pyramid in Italy (with scooters actually at the pinnacle and motorcycles just below). We ride pretty much wherever we want with impunity, and I feel like Moses when traffic politely parts at the centreline like the Red Sea to let us through. There is designated two-wheeled parking everywhere (which is a bit of a force fit with our wide panniers) and unlike four-wheels, it's free everywhere in Italy. With gas prices so high here, it really is the best way to tour around this country!

Some of the Etruscan town walls surrounding Perugia still stand The walls around Perugia reflect it's pre-Roman Empire history. The Romans called the people that lived here the Tusci or Etrusci, and that's where the name Tuscany comes from.

Beautiful medieval buildings - Palazzo dei Priori There were a lot of young people walking around Perugia. On the steps of the Palazzo, a class of art students sat down to draw the Fontana (fountain) Maggiori. We found out later that there are a couple of major universities and a few art and music colleges in town.

 

[Lightcycle]

Italians are all about the fashion. Check out the official police handbags!

Unfortunately, their engineering sense is not as developed as their fashion sense. The walls of these buildings are all crooked! All it needs is a leaning tower to complete the picture!

All over the region, we kept seeing artists sketching the architecture

We plan to stroll around the pretty city streets

But first we rob a convenience store...

Off the main touristic stretches, we discover hidden alleyways with more wonderful, personal architecture

Cat with cauliflower ear - one too many street brawls

Waiting outside the hospital

Perugia is situated on a hill with the plains of the Umbra and Tiber valley below

Hanging out atop the city walls

Finally! Someone I can ask what name of the rose actually was. Read the damn book three times and still couldn't find it..

Speaking of which...

"How did you like Perugia, Neda?"

 

[rafiki911]

I'd want the donkey too lol

 

[Lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/176.html

All roads lead to Rome! So I guess we'll just have to go.

We take a mixture of back roads and highways to get to the Seat of the Holy Roman Empire. I'm very surprised at how well-mannered the traffic is on the highway. Sure, some of the drivers may pass a little close for comfort, barely making it into the passing lane as they tease out the smallest possible closing distance between my left pannier and their right front bumper. But the left-lane-passing-only discipline here is strict and is something that I personally hold sacred, and it's extremely satisfying to see everyone here practicing it. If only North Americans would follow the same etiquette!

Riding through Rome!

From our campsite just north of the city, we planned out our daily excursions. Rome wasn't built in a day, so we're certainly not going to trying touring it in a day either. From all accounts, the traffic in the city is supposed to be horrendous and for a brief moment we considered taking the metro into the downtown, but in the end we decided to brave the metropolis traffic, just to get a taste of the gladiatorial theatre being played out on the roads. But first, we don our armour - taking off our panniers so we could better blend in with the ruling class (scooters) and slip more easily between traffic.

Let the games begin!

My slim R1200GS parking in a scooter spot

So having ridden to and around Rome on different days at different times: weekday morning rush hour, mid-day traffic, and weekend afternoons - we rate the traffic as being very tame. I think our experience in Latin America on their congested roads really put things in perspective. There's a "road space rationing" system in effect here that only allows half the vehicles into the city limits on alternating days during business hours, depending on whether your license plate ends in an even number or odd. Just like in Mexico City, Quito, San Jose (Costa Rica) and Bogota, but this rationing system was actually invented by Julius Caesar, right here in Roma!

There are still a lot of cars on the road, but we used to live in Toronto - fourth-largest city in North America! So we know about sharing the road with a million other vehicles. What really made the Roman traffic bearable for us was how lane-splitting was such an intrinsic part of two-wheeled transit. With our newly-slim profiles, we just followed the line of scooters, like ants marching through the concrete jungle, as they discovered and zoomed through cracks and crevices in the traffic that would have made our previously fat-bottomed GSes think twice.

When in Rome, do as the scooters do!

Other kinds of two-wheeled transit in front of the Vatican

We're also visiting a new country today! The Vatican City State is an independent nation, totally surrounded by but walled off from Rome. We've now visited two countries (San Marino as well) without ever leaving the borders of Italy! We stood in line for two hours trying to get into the Vatican Museum.

They even made these sisters wait in line, which is total nun-sense.

I was really excited to visit the Vatican, but didn't know a lot about it before this visit. The main reason why I was interested was because I loved the book, Angels and Demons, and Ob-E-Wan McGregor was in the movie as well! He plays the role of the Camerlengo, which in Italian means, "One who drops their bike repeatedly". It's also a word I love saying, because I'm infantile that way. Camerlengo.

Rome is where the art is

The Vatican Museum is packed to the gills with countless statues, paintings and tourists. More tourists than art: wall-to-wall (fresco-to-fresco?) visitors from all over the world move from room to room in the museum. The most annoying are the guided tours, because the tour operators carry these long sticks with different scarves or flags at the top so the group can find their leader, but also do a great job blocking all the paintings on the wall. Good thing there's a lot of artwork on the ceilings...

Funky spiral staircase in the Vatican Museum

Neda blends in with the pretty girls in the painting

One thing that went through my mind while visiting the Vatican was how far the religion's sphere of influence extended. We spent a year and a half roaming around Latin America, visiting churches and seeing all the religious iconography in their culture, and now, here, in the seat of Roman Catholicism you really get a sense of the power that conquered the lands and minds of people half a world away.

"Excuse me, signore. I need to see the Camerlengo now because of an Illuminati plot to destroy the Vatican"

Panorama camera works sideways too!

We got to see the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo's painting on the ceiling: The Creation of Adam - you know, the one with the Monty Python finger of God reaching out to Naked Adam. We weren't allowed to take pictures because the chapel is a holy place of worship, but what really struck me was how large the ceiling was and how small the Creation of Adam is in relation to it. There were lots of other paintings surrounding it and on the walls. I don't mean to sound heretical, but the Creation of Adam kind of underwhelmed me. Maybe because it's so widely published, it's gained a larger-than-life status. Personally, I liked some of the other paintings in the Sistine Chapel more. But I'm not an Art Historian, so what do I know...

 

[Lightcycle]

"Don't mind me, just lugging my suitcase full of anti-matter into the Vatican..."

When they made the film Angels and Demons they had to digitally recreate the Vatican because they didn't have permission to film there after the church got angry over the plot of The Da Vinci Code. It's a good thing they did because there's always construction and seats and stages set up for special events held at St. Peter's Square and the Basilica. On a typical day, it's not that photogenic at street-level.

Baroque palaces of the Piazza Navona

Egyptian writing on the Obelisk in the Piazza Navona. Come on! If that's not an Illuminati clue, I don't know what is!

Expensive phone call - because of the Roamin' Charges.

Wandering around the streets of Rome

All ready for picnic at the Pantheon

The Pantheon, right in the heart of Rome, was magnificent. Just the size of it was gargantuan and the material that it was made of was so polished and ancient that it seemed almost fake, as if it were created for a movie. Out of all the buildings in this city, this one impressed me the most, so I took a picture of a car in front of it. Fiats are everywhere in Italy, and I'd totally get an old 500L to tool around in if I was living here.

Vittorio Emanuele II Monument

Ruins near the Roman Forum

The Colosseum - largest amphitheatre in the world!

When I was a kid, I had a book filled with cartoons of places all over the world. I don't remember any of the other pages except for the one with the Colosseum in Rome, for some reason it really grabbed my imagination. So seeing this up close brought back that one childhood memory. In fact, this trip has really made my inner-five-year-old ecstatic! I don't think I'd ever have imagined back then that I'd be standing in front of and walking around all the things I saw on TV documentaries and books that I've read.

As we approached the Colosseum, Neda asked me, "Which do you like better, the Roman Colosseum or Pula's Arena?" She said it in exactly the same way that your girlfriend would ask, "Do you think that girl is prettier than me?" I hesitated. Big mistake... My legs still hurt from all the back-pedaling I had to do.

Tip for all you guys out there: your girlfriend or wife's home-town amphitheatre is always prettier than the Roman Colosseum. ALWAYS.

Arch of Titus, near the Colosseum

So many tourists, everywhere! And everything's under construction or fenced off, so not as pretty as in the postcards...

My panoroma camera managed to capture the world's thinnest woman!

 

[Lightcycle]

Riding the Appian Way! My favorite part of Rome was leaving it! Literally.

The Appian Way is a on old military road that connected Rome to the south-eastern most reaches of the country. You know the expression, "All roads lead to Rome"? It was in reference to this road, where hundreds of thousands of Roman Legionnaires' sandaled feet polished the cobblestones on this well-worn path to and from the capital.

Capo di Bove, Appian Way

There are so many beautiful old buildings and ruins in Rome that I'm glad we spent a bit of time just being tourists, but sharing it with so many thousands of other people really bummed me out. The very large and rough cobblestones on the Appian Way meant that there wasn't a lot of vehicular traffic through here. There are 4x4 Jeep tours (a bit of an overkill) that you can hire to take you along the Appian Way, but the road is mainly sprinkled with the odd hiker stopping along the way to see an old building or ruins along the path. Nice and quiet, just the way we like it!

The suspension on our GSes really got a workout as this was the first dual-sportish road since arriving in Europe! The cobblestone rocks are so polished that I can't imagine how slippery it must be when it rains.

Stopping to admire the scenery

The Appian Way has numerous stories to tell. Spartacus, the renegade gladiator, was defeated along this road by a trap laid by the Romans. Even as late as WWII, the Allies fell on this same road at the Battle of Anzio that lasted four months. Lots of history here.

Smoke is from a BBQ from one of the many swanky estates that can afford an Appian Way address

Villa dei Quintili, along the Appian Way

 

[Lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/177.html

From Rome, we tried to hug the western coastline as we ventured further south. We stopped for the evening just outside of Naples at a campsite we found on the Internet, but it turned out to be The Most Expensive Campsite In The World, because it was situated on the grounds of a dormant volcano. We didn't know this beforehand, but since it was starting to rain, we decided to set up our tent instead of trying to look for another place.

There was no 3G signal on the campsite, so we had to hike out of the campsite to the main road so we could log onto AirBnB to find someplace warm and dry for the next couple of nights. We've done some pretty vagabond-ish stuff on this trip, like camping out in a Walmart McDonald for hours stealing their free wi-fi. But nothing will top sitting on a bus stop bench in the pouring rain while taking chugs from a tetra pak of red wine. We looked like a couple of miserable, wet hobos, but after the tetra-pak was done, we turned into a couple of happy, wet hobos. Red, red wine, make me feel so fine...

Campground Cat is laughing at how much we paid last night

In the morning, before leaving, I told Neda, "We should probably go see their stupid volcano to make it worth our money". It wasn't very large, you could probably walk around the rim of the crater in 15 minutes.

Inside the crater of Vulcano Solfata there was all sorts of fissures sending up steams of smelly gas

Crocs were probably a bad idea for this hike

We met Petr and his friend, two R1200GS riders from the Czech Republic, who also stayed at the campsite last night

We continued south on the coastline trying to find the closest road to the sea, and we were rewarded with a scenic cobblestone ride into Naples. For once, the sun was out and we peered over the edge of the road as it twisted around the steep cliffs overlooking the blue Tyrrhenian Sea. A very nice ride!

Our cobblestone ride takes us into Naples

Neda staring at Mount Vesuvius in the distance

Don't f*** with the Scooter Mafia! This car parked in scooter parking and paid the price.

We just can't get used to the Italian siesta, called the riposo, which closes down all shops and stores from... basically whenever the sun is in the sky. We always seem to be perpetually off-sync, knocking on shuttered doors hoping to get gas or food while we're on the road.

We're also out of sync with Italians mealtimes as well. The restaurants only seem to be open on a very rigid schedule: a couple of hours for lunch and then only after 7PM for dinner. Because we had an early breakfast, we were starving by 11AM. With our bellies complaining loudly, I knocked on the door of one establishment where there seemed to be people inside preparing for the lunch hour. One of the employees peeked his head out and told us it would be another hour before they opened. My stomach and I grumbled in unison. I think it must have been a bakery because from inside, when his co-worker asked about us, I distinctly heard him mention "mangia" and then "cake"...

Ever seen a cake eat a pizza?

Did you know pizza was invented in Naples? They take their pie-making very seriously in the city. There's even an Associazone Verace Pizza Napoletana, which certifies pizzerias around the world to the Neopolitan standard according to an 11-page document that outlines stringent regulations like the acidity of the yeast, thickness of the pie, and the ingredients like the fresh tomatoes and buffalo cheese, which all have to come from the area surrounding Naples. This pretty much guarantees that the only certified Pizza Napoletana can only come from Naples.

After eating one of these certified pies, I feel a bit more Italian so from now on, I'm going to start using the Italian names of the places we're visiting. For the Mangiacakes out there, here's a quick reference: Napoli = Naples, Roma = Rome, Bologna = Baloney!

 

[Lightcycle]

Staying at a typical Italian neighbourhood, those are our clothes drying on the line!

Because of the costs of accommodations in Italy, we're finding that we need to be more diligent in researching and booking places in advance, instead of rolling into town and knocking on doors like we did in Latin America. We're refining this process and we're pleasantly surprised at how many private homes are opening their doors to travelers via AirBnB. Very good value for the money. HostelWorld remains a distant second because of the relative low value for what you pay for, and there seem to be plenty of RV campsites all over Italy, which is our cheap and easy fallback plan. The trick is finding one that doesn't have a volcano or spa attached to it that hikes up the price.

We opted to stay outside of Napoli, just a couple of kms away from Pompeii, which we visited the next day.

The ruins of Pompeii

There are places that we stumble upon as we're traveling that just pop up on our radar as we're planning our next day's ride. Pompeii was one of them. I had no idea it was this close to Napoli. We had planned to stop in the area to try some authentic pizza Napoletana and ended up visiting the ruins that had captivated my imagination when I was a kid.

Mount Vesuvius in the background

Walking through the streets of Pompeii, some sections were boarded off because excavation work is still underway

One of my favorite TV programs growing up was a sci-fi-documentary series called In Search Of... I remember being transfixed for a whole half-hour every week as Mr. Spock himself spun tales of pseudo-science explaining how the Mayans worshiped Ancient Astronauts and how Mount Vesuvius erupted blanketing Pompeii in a layer of thick hot ash, instantly preserving everything it covered. I remember vividly the plaster casts of the bodies caught in their last moment of anguish and how that both haunted and fascinated me at the same time.

Over 1,000 bodies were found preserved in the ashes of Pompeii

The biggest mystery was why Pompeii was the only city that had human bodies preserved in such detail that even the folds of their clothes can be seen in the plaster casts made from the hollows of the ashes. Other cities near Vesuvius showed no such preservation, only bones and teeth remained of their citizens as the pyroclastic surges of hot toxic gases and ash incinerated their bodies.

A recent documentary I watched explained that Pompeii was exactly the right distance away from Vesuvius that the surge of hot gases was just the right temperature to kill a person - boiling their brains in their skull - but not hot enough to destroy their flesh and clothing.

Some of the dead were little children, which was very sad

I spent a good long time staring at these bodies with both sadness and wonder. Like many other moments on this trip, this was a visit that brought back childhood memories and at times, it felt like I was 10 years old again with a Leonard Nimoy voiceover in my head. Pure Energy...

Greek-looking columns in Pompeii

I did some research and the columns here are more Greek-inspired than Roman. Pompeii is regarded as the crossroads between the Roman architecture of the north and the Greek influence of the southern Italy. I know nothing about architecture, but I love the names of the types of Greek columns: Doric, Ionic, Mixolydian, Pentatonic...

Water break amongst the ruins

"No Neda, this amphitheatre is not as pretty as Pula's..."

After this visit to the ruins of Pompeii, I have a new mission for our trip. I'm going to download all those old episodes of In Search Of... and then we're going to ride to every place covered in each episode. Next stop: The Lost City of Atlantis!

 

[ganicuss]

I'm so jealous! Godspeed you too :icon_smile: See ya whenever you decide to come back.

 

[Lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/178.html

The Amalfi Coast is one of the world's top motorcycle destination roads, earning it's reputation by offering up twists and turns and amazing sea-side scenery. Situated just east of Napoli, the pretty part only covers 40 kms between Positano and Salerno, but there's much to see in such a small stretch of coastline.

Getting ready to hit the Amalfi Coast!

Worth getting up early for this!

We woke up bright and early because we wanted to really take our time on the Amalfi Coast, but since we were headed eastbound we had the sun in our eyes for most of the ride. The road is short enough that you could probably ride back and forth a few times in a single day, but we wanted to head further south so this was our only run.

Small towns and villages cling onto the Amalfi coastline and provide a pretty backdrop to our twisty ride

Such a scenic view from the road above looking into all the small villages in the bays below

The Amalfi Coast really lived up to its reputation. Our helmets were like bobbleheads taking in the 360 degree panorama of views around us, the coastline far below us to our right, the pretty towns that we rode through, dodging the local kamikaza scooters as they railed around the turns that they have memorized day in and day out. Neda and I both agreed that this was one of the top 5 roads that we've ever ridden in all of our travels. So glad we made it here!

Honeycomb pattern of villas and vacation rentals like kudzu on the cliffs of Amalfi

Local fruits and veggies

Thankfully we were blessed with incredible riding weather, blue sunny skies with only a few clouds lingering in the stratosphere, perfect temperature and not too much traffic on this early Saturday morning. After the last few days of rain, it would have been a shame having to ride this road in the wet.

40 kms turned into a 4-hour ride, we stopped at the side of the road to take many pictures

and when we saw the town of Amalfi, we decided to park the bikes and explore a bit

Amalfi is the main town on the Amalfi Coast, there are tons of other smaller villages that we passed through, but the opulence and the splendour of the buildings here begged us to stop and explore the place a bit more. Amalfi used to be a popular vacation spot for rich British people, perusing all the high-end stores and dining at the expensive restaurants in town. Now smelly, hobo bikers like us wander around and eat groceries from out of our topcase.

Round the Amalfi Coast with an Italian Supermodel?

Like most European beaches, Amalfi had a pebbly shore where we laid out our towels for a soak in the sun and surf

Neda said she prefers the pebbly beaches instead of the sandy ones because you don't get all dirty. Maybe it's because it's what she was used to growing up in Croatia, but to me, my childhood memories were of chasing tiny crabs as they popped up out of the sand after each wave came ashore on the beaches of Ipoh in Malaysia. To me, a beach has to have sand!

That, and pebbly beaches also leave weird pock-marks on your butt when you get up! Or maybe that's all the pasta I've been eating...

An octopus washed up on shore to become someone lucky sunbather's take-home dinner

Waving goodbye to Amalfi beach. Back on the road!

[video=youtube;JRzoWCKjngY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRzoWCKjngY[/video]
Pictures and words don't really do the ride around the Amalfi Coast justice, so here's a video instead

 

[vanjka]

Well my friends you did it again. We are so happy that you are continuing this incredible journey and are giving us ideas where our next moto destination might be. Keep well happy and strong. Pozdrav from Ivan & Sladjana in fall enveloped Toronto ; )

 

[viper84737]

"Neda and I both agreed that this was one of the top 5 roads that we've ever ridden in all of our travels"

What are the others?

 

[mmmnaked]

"Neda and I both agreed that this was one of the top 5 roads that we've ever ridden in all of our travels"

What are the others?

Forks of the Credit, Hockley Valley, Snake Rd, Southwood..... DUH!!!

 

[Lightcycle]

Pozdrav from Ivan & Sladjana in fall enveloped Toronto ; )

Hvala, Ivan!

"Neda and I both agreed that this was one of the top 5 roads that we've ever ridden in all of our travels"

What are the others?

Hard to rank them, but these are the most memorable:

Dalton Highway, Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle

Rohtang Pass, Indian Himalayas

Deals Gap, TN

Road to Hana, Maui, Hawaii

Kootenay Highway, Alberta

Stelvio Pass, Italy

Sea-To-Sky Highay, BC

White Rim Trail, Utah

 

[Brian P]

Stunning ... The few days that I've spent riding in northern Italy convinced me that Italy is my favorite country. Now you've reinforced that opinion a hundred times over. I will be back!

 

[Gary]

Hard to rank them, but these are the most memorable:

You two need to get out more!!

j/k....fascinating pics & lifestyle.

(living vicariously thru your posts......stay safe).

 

[MacDoc]

Fantastic shots....did you guys do Norway??