Riceburner
Well-known member
Merry Christmas Gene and Neda!
Quit our jobs, sold our home and everything in it, gone riding...
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Supernam
Well-known member
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/263.html
We've got one eye on the southbound road ahead of us and another eye on the calendar, trying to stay ahead of the winter looming just over the horizon behind us. The weather has been pretty variable lately, with warm and sunny days alternating with wet and gloomy days, signalling the close of another fall season in Europe. We're in pretty good spirits. All the company that we've surrounded ourselves with has lifted our mood, so we're not going to fix what's not broken and we're on our way to see more people that we know.
Riding around the Swiss part of Lake Lugano
Morcote is one of the most popular tourist spots in Ticino
Bettina and Stefano took us here the last time we were in Switzerland, and now we're just riding through on our way to Italy. The pretty village and the lake-side scenery is complemented by the beautiful weather we're having. I can't believe it's so nice this late in the season!
We've got one eye on the southbound road ahead of us and another eye on the calendar, trying to stay ahead of the winter looming just over the horizon behind us. The weather has been pretty variable lately, with warm and sunny days alternating with wet and gloomy days, signalling the close of another fall season in Europe. We're in pretty good spirits. All the company that we've surrounded ourselves with has lifted our mood, so we're not going to fix what's not broken and we're on our way to see more people that we know.
Riding around the Swiss part of Lake Lugano
Morcote is one of the most popular tourist spots in Ticino
Bettina and Stefano took us here the last time we were in Switzerland, and now we're just riding through on our way to Italy. The pretty village and the lake-side scenery is complemented by the beautiful weather we're having. I can't believe it's so nice this late in the season!
And then suddenly we're in Italy once again! Ciao, Bella!
Now I can let Neda take over the reins of communication and just relax and be a "passenger" through Italy. Neda is the more extroverted of the two of us, and whenever we're in a country where I speak the language better than she does (basically only France, Morocco and Walloon Belgium), she ends up feeling a bit disconnected from the trip. I'm totally different. If I don't have to perform negotiation and translation duties, I'm much more happier just to sit back and enjoy the ride. Just part of my lazy personality.
It's been exactly a year since we've been here and right away, when we crossed the border we saw swarms of scooters parked on the side of the road and zipping through the streets. And all the women were dressed up to the nines as well. It's funny how much you forget about a place until you come back to it and then everything's like, "Oh yeah, I remember that!"
Trying to find our way out of Como
We're not spending any time in the big city, instead zig-zagging our way back north on the Italian side of Lake Como to explore the roads around the triangular peninsula called Triangolo Lariano. Yesterday, Bettina pointed out some great twisty roads up and down the mountain right on the peninsula.
Riding around Lake Como in perfect weather
The narrow roads around Lake Como are lined with steep roads that traverse the interior of the triangular peninsula
We take one such road up into the interior. Grigna Mountains across the lake in the distance
Turns out it wasn't just any road. This was the world famous Passo del Ghisallo. Famous if you're a cyclist, which we're not, so we didn't know what we stumbled upon. It's one of the roads that they race on in the Tour of Lombardy. Over a distance of 10 kms, the road climbs over 500m high. What makes it so challenging for cyclists is that the switchbacks are non-stop one after the other... I dunno, sounds kinda fun if you have a motor strapped onto your cycle...!
Museo del Ciclismo in Magreglio
At the top of a road is a chapel dedicated to the Madonna del Ghisallo, the patron saint of cyclists. I'm not making this up. The chapel also doubles as a museum dedicated to cycling, with lots of memorabilia, jerseys, bicycles and old photographs of famous cyclists over the years. Cyclists from all over the world come to ride this road and pay homage in the chapel/museum.
[video=youtube;RnHH8cFzssE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnHH8cFzssE[/video]
Here's a short video of our ride into Bellagio, down the Passo Del Ghisallo. No cyclists were harmed in the making of this video.
Riding into ritzy Bellagio
It's a small world after all!
We had just gotten off our bikes and were starting to do our requisite stroll around Bellagio when this gentleman exits a building and calls us out by name. Totally caught us off-guard. I'm really bad with names and faces, but I was pretty sure I didn't know him. He introduced himself as Gino, a fellow motorcycle rider and traveler from Scotland and he told us that he had been following our blog. Wow! That's incredible! What are the odds?
And that's not the entire story. Earlier this year, Gino and his wife had hosted Sara and Daniel, our fellow Canadian motorcycle friends that we traveled with in Norway. That really makes the world a small place! Gino and his wife were here on a vacation, albeit not a motorcycle one this time. We chatted for a while on the streets of Bellagio and wished each other a good journey.
I was drooling over this Ducati 999. Ah, Italian sportbikes in Italy! This is my favorite and I miss the one I owned dearly
Bellagio is a very upscale touristy town
They call this town the "Pearl of the Lake" and it's where rich Italians go on vacation in the summer months to escape the heat of the lowlands of Milan. One look at the storefronts and we knew we couldn't afford to buy even a soda here, so it's off to do more riding.
Como stai? Bene! Bene!
Andiamo, Bella! Back on the road!
Heading towards Milan
Spending a few days with Neda's sister and her family in Milan
The World Fair is being held in Milan this month. Goga told us that they went and it was crowded and expensive. Good thing that Touring Mode is Off for us, we're just here to hang out with family.
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/264.html
After almost a week in Milan visiting family, we're off again.
Generally, we're heading south for the winter, but we're taking the scenic route there, zigging and zagging through some of the more entertaining roads along the way. For a change, I took over planning duties and organized a route for us up and back through the Italian Alps, through the Lago Di Garda area in Lombardy. Then we're going to head up to the mountains of the South Tyrol and the Dolomites region of Italy, just south of Austria. There's supposed to be fantastic riding there and all we want to do is just stay off the highway and take in some twisty roads.
A quick jaunt on the Autostrada takes us past Brescia to the southern edge of Lago di Garda and from there we climb up Monte Baldo, overlooking the eastern shores of Lago di Garda.
Once again, the weather is co-operating with us as we climb higher up into the Italian Alps
Just east of us is the Soave wine region of Verona. There are quite a lot of vineyards that we pass in this area
There are some very pretty touristy towns that line both the eastern and western shores of Lago Di Garda. But we're going to skip them, traveling along the interior roads up and through the mountainous region. We just feel like riding today. So this blog entry will be nothing but pictures of our ride...
Passing more vineyards
After almost a week in Milan visiting family, we're off again.
Generally, we're heading south for the winter, but we're taking the scenic route there, zigging and zagging through some of the more entertaining roads along the way. For a change, I took over planning duties and organized a route for us up and back through the Italian Alps, through the Lago Di Garda area in Lombardy. Then we're going to head up to the mountains of the South Tyrol and the Dolomites region of Italy, just south of Austria. There's supposed to be fantastic riding there and all we want to do is just stay off the highway and take in some twisty roads.
A quick jaunt on the Autostrada takes us past Brescia to the southern edge of Lago di Garda and from there we climb up Monte Baldo, overlooking the eastern shores of Lago di Garda.
Once again, the weather is co-operating with us as we climb higher up into the Italian Alps
Just east of us is the Soave wine region of Verona. There are quite a lot of vineyards that we pass in this area
There are some very pretty touristy towns that line both the eastern and western shores of Lago Di Garda. But we're going to skip them, traveling along the interior roads up and through the mountainous region. We just feel like riding today. So this blog entry will be nothing but pictures of our ride...
Passing more vineyards
Riding through some quaint and sleepy towns in the north-west province of Verona
Soaking in the sunshine on this beautiful riding day
In and out through these small towns nestled in the slopes of Monte Baldo
Such a wide variety of terrain and scenery here!
I have to laugh at this picture. There is absolutely no reason why this road has to be shaped this way.
Not that we're complaining...
We are so spoiled riding around the mountains in Europe. These staircases of roads seem like they are so commonplace everywhere!
Fellow motorcyclists have the same idea as us. Blurring is natural because my camera's auto-focus is so slow.
But it looks cool in this shot!
Riding through The Gorge near Lago Di Garda
The picture that could have been...
I take a ton of pictures when I'm riding, pulling out my camera when I see something interesting. Because there's a delay between me thinking, "Hey that would make a nice picture" and actually taking the camera out, I miss out on a lot of good shots. This one above was especially heartbreaking because we had just ridden through a series of short tunnels cut through the rock in The Gorge, and we were at the last set when I had the much-belated thought, "Hey this would make a cool picture".
So out comes the camera, but because the tunnels go from dark to light so quickly, it takes *forever* for the sensor to auto-focus and I JUST MISSED Neda disappearing into the next tunnel ahead. It would have been such a great shot to have her framed right in front of me in this picture!
Bah. Not good enough to Photoshop her in...
She'll be comin' round the mountain, when she comes
At one point the road carves a narrow path alongside the steep face of the mountain. Slate grey peaks covered in greenery peek through a shroud of clouds in the distance, and the valley drops off dramatically beside us. The late autumn trees look like they are on fire in contrast to the brilliant blue sky above - that sky that seems to be borrowed from the summer that we never had.
[video=youtube;VfHjnPHNkcY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfHjnPHNkcY [/video]
But don't take my word for it, here's a short video!
Right about now I'm thinking, "I should really put away the camera and try to make this next turn..."
Descending into Rovereto
We are stopping in Rovereto, at the northern end of Lago di Garda, for a late lunch. About a month and a half ago, I got an e-mail from someone in Toronto who keeps up with our blog. He asked to meet with us because he read that we were back in town for the summer. Unfortunately, because our blog is so far behind, we had already returned back to Europe, so we didn't get a chance to connect. But we've kept in touch since and it just so happened that we were now both in the same area.
So a quick exchange of e-mails and here we are knocking on the door of someone that we had never met before, in a town nobody's ever heard about. But he's a fellow Canadian, so we felt pretty safe...
Our mystery host wants to remain anonymous, so no names or pictures, but he fed us lunch and we ended up having quite a lengthy and deep discussion over the kitchen table about our travels. He's also a nomad as well, spending the better part of the last 10 years moving around from place to place, sometimes on a motorcycle, sometimes with a backpack. We have very similar backgrounds, so it was quite a treat to have a Birds of a Feather discussion, getting to share thoughts and experiences about life on the road that somebody else who hasn't done it may not understand or be that sympathetic about.
Rovereto Town Square
It was with great reluctance that we had to leave this tiny Northern Italian town and our wonderful host. We had already booked an AirBnB much further north. I had originally planned more twisty roads through the Dolomites, but spending further time with like-minded company instead was the absolute correct decision.
We were now racing against the setting sun which disappears below the mountains of the Alps extra early - as if to add insult to the injury of the shortened daylight hours! The midnight sun in Norway really spoiled us. So we said our goodbyes outside in the town square and hopped on the Autostrada past Trento. Despite it being a highway, the alpine scenery is still fantastic, but the light was dimming and we arrived in the small village of Sappada in the heart of the Dolomiti in darkness. Not to worry though, plenty of time to explore the area tomorrow!
We wait for our AirBnB hosts to meet us on the one street that makes up the tiny town of Sappada. Only 8PM and it's already pitch dark.
It was a fantastic day of riding. I know in the back of our minds, we're both evaluating the future and where we're going to end up and what we want to be doing, but sometimes just being on the back of a bike and riding some twisty roads for hours on end is the best kind of solution to the problem of thinking just too damn much.
Thought that area looked sorta-familiar. On my trip to the area, if memory serves, our route included Chiavenna (lunch) - a loop around Julierpass and Albulapass - stayed in Zuoz - then Stelvio - Ponte di Legno - Riva del Garda - Rovereto ... or something like that. Sooo many choices and they are all stunning. Northern Italy is beautiful.
viper84737
Well-known member
YES! This happens so frequently I find, too! You sometimes have to choose between enjoying the scene for yourself and deciding to photograph it for others, or even stopping to do both (which is more of the latter than the former), and for me more necessary, as shooting with a giant DSLR with a 200 mm zoom lens is practically impossible to do while riding. Usually I kept it on the tank bag with the zipper facing me so I could have super quick access, I'm sure you do something similar given what you've described.
This phenomenon happens so much so that you only get to show other people a tiny glimpse of what you ever saw, and while trying to explain the awe of it you can't properly do it. I understand it completely.
Face
Well-known member
Happy New Years Neda & Gene!
Hope you had good fun riding in the Dolomites and are now someplace warmer. We certainly enjoyed them last year. Craggy mountains, lush green valleys and amazing switchback roads and mountain passes makes for the best combination of riding & scenery. If you're still there now, park the bikes & enjoy the skiing/boarding.
Hope you had good fun riding in the Dolomites and are now someplace warmer. We certainly enjoyed them last year. Craggy mountains, lush green valleys and amazing switchback roads and mountain passes makes for the best combination of riding & scenery. If you're still there now, park the bikes & enjoy the skiing/boarding.
Yeah, that whole area oozes motorsports. You've got Ducati, MV, Ferrari and Lambo factories, Maranello, Misano and Imola racetracks and the birthplace of Rossi and Simoncelli all within an hour of each other!
Lots of pictures that I wish I could have taken, which just grow more legendary in my mind over time, even though they probably weren't that good originally!
Thank you! Happy New Years to you and yours, as well!
Riceburner
Well-known member
You guys have a great 2016 for the rest of us!
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/265.html
The nights are getting quite chilly this time of year. We've settled in for the evening in a really quaint wooden lodge in this tiny one-street village of Sappada right in the heart of the Dolomites. It's a very popular destination for skiers in the wintertime, but at this time of year the place is eerily quiet - an alpine ghost town. I kinda like it. And I love that we booked the lodge for a fraction of the price that it would list for in the middle of ski season.
Feels like we're on vacation!
Neda gets warm and cozy in bed with a good movie. Big day planned for tomorrow!
But unfortunately, we woke up in the morning to this...
The rain is pounding the roof of our lodge mercilessly. Water is running down the streets in sheets. What a terrible day for riding...
I can't complain though. We've had such an awesome stretch of nice weather over the last few weeks, marred only by a handful of rainy days. That's quite uncharacteristic for us. So in the back of my mind I was always anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop. The only sad part is that this streak had to end while we're in the midst of a motorcyclist's playground.
We watched from the warmth of our comfy and toasty lodge and waited for any sign that the showers would abate.
The nights are getting quite chilly this time of year. We've settled in for the evening in a really quaint wooden lodge in this tiny one-street village of Sappada right in the heart of the Dolomites. It's a very popular destination for skiers in the wintertime, but at this time of year the place is eerily quiet - an alpine ghost town. I kinda like it. And I love that we booked the lodge for a fraction of the price that it would list for in the middle of ski season.
Feels like we're on vacation!
Neda gets warm and cozy in bed with a good movie. Big day planned for tomorrow!
But unfortunately, we woke up in the morning to this...
The rain is pounding the roof of our lodge mercilessly. Water is running down the streets in sheets. What a terrible day for riding...
I can't complain though. We've had such an awesome stretch of nice weather over the last few weeks, marred only by a handful of rainy days. That's quite uncharacteristic for us. So in the back of my mind I was always anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop. The only sad part is that this streak had to end while we're in the midst of a motorcyclist's playground.
We watched from the warmth of our comfy and toasty lodge and waited for any sign that the showers would abate.
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Did I mention our lodge has underground parking? We have the whole garage to ourselves. Sweet!
Timing our exit during a lull in the rainfall
Such a shame that the mountains are obscured by a layer of thick fog
We're going to head east today, through the Regional Nature Park of the Julian Alps, which is just west of the Slovenian border. The damp mountain air this morning chills us to the bone and we keep our rainsuits on for warmth but also because we know it's probably going to rain again later on in the day.
On the way, we pass through many pretty Northern Italian alpine towns
Always a church in each town
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