johnnycash1980
Guest
The plan was to get down to Italy to spend a week with my girlfriend Sneshka, who was flying out. I took a couple of weeks off so as to take advantage of all the great roads between here and there!
Set off on 8th September from London, to Nancy. Mainly toll roads. Nancy was a very quiet town though. Most interesting thing that happened was when I was tying my shoe laces on the main street and a wino tramp took me by surprise by putting his hand on my shoulder and jabbering at me in french, a well directed shove sent him spiraling across the street. He may just have been asking me the time, but he gave me enough of a fright to warrant my push!
Next rode down to lake Como. Again mostly Toll roads. But did get a real buzz coming out of a tunnel and seeing the Alps for the first time. Stayed in Como for a couple of nights. Had nice ride along the western shore (passing through George Clooney's new home town), then caught ferry over to Bellagio. Apparently they based the Casino from Oceans Eleven on this place (wish I'd payed attention to the film!). From here there is a pleasant enough road down to Lecce, although it was busy on the day I did it.
From Como made my way on the motorways to Reggio Emilia, where I met Tyrone (a fellow Gser). Had a top afternoon with Tyrone as a guide and me as tourist. We stopped off at one of the area's Castles and a church built into a rockface. After mass and a few prayers, the highlight was the long and twisty Cerrato Pass. I'd definitely recommend this route over the motorways if you're riding to Pisa.
Had a crap experience first night in Tuscany. Firstly couldn't find my place in pisa, got lost for ages going round red light districts etc. Was sharing a 3 bed dorm at a camp site. One room mate was a geordie student who puked all over the room, the other was a chap from Lancaster; bright coloured baseball cap, vest , short shorts and Jesus sandals, to top this his nose went in eough directions to suggest it had obviously been broken several times in the past. Turns out he was a blacksmith too of all things. Anyway as the evening wore on in the bar for no good reason this guy took a bit of a dislike to me! He was a total psycho, in the middle of polite conversation with a Scottish lad and a Kiwi he kept on turning to me and saying 'you're the ******* problem!', then he'd apologise and try to shake my hand and say he had some problems himself. In between these little outbursts he was buying drinks for our Geordie roomate and hugging the Scot and Kiwi. Too weird to describe fully! Anyway after his final confrontation with me, I decided against giving him another broken nose, went back to our room and found puke boy! When the campsite manager very rudely refused to give me another room at the same rate (they would only offer me a 3 bed caravan at 60 euros, instead of the 18 I was to pay in the dorm) I decided on another hotel! Crazy stuff. So if you're crazy enough to want to stop in this horrible city don't go to Camping Village Torre Pendente
Next morning I had a 20 min walk from the hotel to pick up my bike from the camp site as I had leave it due to my inebriation! From here I picked up Snesh at Pisa Airport, and rode the scenic route to Siena, through the Tuscan countryside and beautiful Volterra.
Stopped in a great place near siena, farm house in the middle of nowhere, had to get the bike dirty to find it. Unfortunatly it pissed down for the 3 days we were here! On the morning Snesh arrived in Pisa it was 30 degrees, by the afternoon it was freezing cold and thunderstorms!
From Siena we left for the East coast. Went over the Muraglione Pass going from Florence area to Ravenna. It was fun, reminded me of Cerreto but much, much longer and higher! Lovely corner after corner!
Got a bit cold on the top though.
We stopped in Ravenna for a couple of nights. Nice enough city. Then headed up to Venice. The coast road up to Venice was very boring, and has loads of HGVs on it clogging up the route, if I was on the same route again I'd use the motorway! I enjoyed having a rest off the wheels for a couple of days in Venice. It also helped ease the simmering jealousy that was growing in Snesh as she competed with Garmina (my Sat Nav lady) and my lovely bike for my attention.
Took the scenic route from Venice to Garda, skimming across the southern Dolomites I guess. This was a great route in the end, but I did have a couple of fairly monotonous hours riding through the towns surrounding venice.
Ride from Garda to Stelvio was a hoot, was early on a Sunday so the roads were empty. The Tonale pass was great, from what I can recall Ended up on Gavia Pass up to Bormio, this was a little lairy as the clouds has descended and the Sunday drivers were out in force on a single track road. There was a load of traffic on the Stelvio, I really should have planned it so I didn't pass by on a Sunday! But I got a good run down after overtaking a few cars at the top of the Swiss side, had another Brit riding with me at a similar pace, which made it even more fun. I must say though I think I preferred the roads earlier in the day that were in decent condition and empty! Did Resia pass in Austria, boring after all the cool stuff from earlier. Spent evening in Garmisch.
Found riding in Germany interesting. You're either getting stuck behind a succession of drivers, driving bang on the speed limit on the fun roads. Or getting overtaken by Merc and Beemer cars on the boring autobahns driving at insane speed!
Had a crazy last day. I drove from Garmisch to London in one go, around 1200km. I decided that I didn't fancy another night in a hotel, in a boring northern french town. I also wanted a rest day at home before getting back to work. Was ok really. Apart from french motorways in dark with no lights or cat's eyes etc. When I got home I was buzzing and wanted to carry on!
Overall a great ride out. If anyone wants any more details I'll do my best to give you the details, but I can't download the tracks as I'm on a Mac not PC.
Would love to put some pictures up but not sure I can yet as I'm not a fully paid up member!
Set off on 8th September from London, to Nancy. Mainly toll roads. Nancy was a very quiet town though. Most interesting thing that happened was when I was tying my shoe laces on the main street and a wino tramp took me by surprise by putting his hand on my shoulder and jabbering at me in french, a well directed shove sent him spiraling across the street. He may just have been asking me the time, but he gave me enough of a fright to warrant my push!
Next rode down to lake Como. Again mostly Toll roads. But did get a real buzz coming out of a tunnel and seeing the Alps for the first time. Stayed in Como for a couple of nights. Had nice ride along the western shore (passing through George Clooney's new home town), then caught ferry over to Bellagio. Apparently they based the Casino from Oceans Eleven on this place (wish I'd payed attention to the film!). From here there is a pleasant enough road down to Lecce, although it was busy on the day I did it.
From Como made my way on the motorways to Reggio Emilia, where I met Tyrone (a fellow Gser). Had a top afternoon with Tyrone as a guide and me as tourist. We stopped off at one of the area's Castles and a church built into a rockface. After mass and a few prayers, the highlight was the long and twisty Cerrato Pass. I'd definitely recommend this route over the motorways if you're riding to Pisa.
Had a crap experience first night in Tuscany. Firstly couldn't find my place in pisa, got lost for ages going round red light districts etc. Was sharing a 3 bed dorm at a camp site. One room mate was a geordie student who puked all over the room, the other was a chap from Lancaster; bright coloured baseball cap, vest , short shorts and Jesus sandals, to top this his nose went in eough directions to suggest it had obviously been broken several times in the past. Turns out he was a blacksmith too of all things. Anyway as the evening wore on in the bar for no good reason this guy took a bit of a dislike to me! He was a total psycho, in the middle of polite conversation with a Scottish lad and a Kiwi he kept on turning to me and saying 'you're the ******* problem!', then he'd apologise and try to shake my hand and say he had some problems himself. In between these little outbursts he was buying drinks for our Geordie roomate and hugging the Scot and Kiwi. Too weird to describe fully! Anyway after his final confrontation with me, I decided against giving him another broken nose, went back to our room and found puke boy! When the campsite manager very rudely refused to give me another room at the same rate (they would only offer me a 3 bed caravan at 60 euros, instead of the 18 I was to pay in the dorm) I decided on another hotel! Crazy stuff. So if you're crazy enough to want to stop in this horrible city don't go to Camping Village Torre Pendente
Next morning I had a 20 min walk from the hotel to pick up my bike from the camp site as I had leave it due to my inebriation! From here I picked up Snesh at Pisa Airport, and rode the scenic route to Siena, through the Tuscan countryside and beautiful Volterra.
Stopped in a great place near siena, farm house in the middle of nowhere, had to get the bike dirty to find it. Unfortunatly it pissed down for the 3 days we were here! On the morning Snesh arrived in Pisa it was 30 degrees, by the afternoon it was freezing cold and thunderstorms!
From Siena we left for the East coast. Went over the Muraglione Pass going from Florence area to Ravenna. It was fun, reminded me of Cerreto but much, much longer and higher! Lovely corner after corner!
Got a bit cold on the top though.We stopped in Ravenna for a couple of nights. Nice enough city. Then headed up to Venice. The coast road up to Venice was very boring, and has loads of HGVs on it clogging up the route, if I was on the same route again I'd use the motorway! I enjoyed having a rest off the wheels for a couple of days in Venice. It also helped ease the simmering jealousy that was growing in Snesh as she competed with Garmina (my Sat Nav lady) and my lovely bike for my attention.
Took the scenic route from Venice to Garda, skimming across the southern Dolomites I guess. This was a great route in the end, but I did have a couple of fairly monotonous hours riding through the towns surrounding venice.
Ride from Garda to Stelvio was a hoot, was early on a Sunday so the roads were empty. The Tonale pass was great, from what I can recall Ended up on Gavia Pass up to Bormio, this was a little lairy as the clouds has descended and the Sunday drivers were out in force on a single track road. There was a load of traffic on the Stelvio, I really should have planned it so I didn't pass by on a Sunday! But I got a good run down after overtaking a few cars at the top of the Swiss side, had another Brit riding with me at a similar pace, which made it even more fun. I must say though I think I preferred the roads earlier in the day that were in decent condition and empty! Did Resia pass in Austria, boring after all the cool stuff from earlier. Spent evening in Garmisch.
Found riding in Germany interesting. You're either getting stuck behind a succession of drivers, driving bang on the speed limit on the fun roads. Or getting overtaken by Merc and Beemer cars on the boring autobahns driving at insane speed!
Had a crazy last day. I drove from Garmisch to London in one go, around 1200km. I decided that I didn't fancy another night in a hotel, in a boring northern french town. I also wanted a rest day at home before getting back to work. Was ok really. Apart from french motorways in dark with no lights or cat's eyes etc. When I got home I was buzzing and wanted to carry on!
Overall a great ride out. If anyone wants any more details I'll do my best to give you the details, but I can't download the tracks as I'm on a Mac not PC.
Would love to put some pictures up but not sure I can yet as I'm not a fully paid up member!
)
