Ancient Monuments Tour - Italy & Greece

barak666 · Jul 22, 2022

Day 27

The following day we walked the 150 yards from our hotel to Porta Marina gates of Pompeii, and at 9-00am precisely we entered with other seekers of historical titillation...(oooh, missus) not now lurcio !

We walked nearly 5 miles and didn't see it all, some of it closed off to the public, some of it only opens on certain days, some of it we didn't see because we were shattered and only just managed to get back to the hotel.

It is a physically demanding site, the old paths and roads are difficult, I'd love to know how many broken ankles they deal with each season. Added this are endless tour groups jostling for position at each of the sites makes it difficult to get time to appreciate what your looking at.

For anyone thinking of visiting Pompeii, my advice is either find the money for a local guide or audio guide or get a very good guide book. We had downloaded a guide to the site but you still found it frustrating not really knowing what you were looking at.

Anyway a few more photos to bore you with...

Mount Vesuvius in the background...

I think the God's were trying to tell me something...

barak666 · Jul 22, 2022

Day 28

The following day was a transit north day.... 280 miles at 36c of Italy's A1 motorway. A two lane toll motorway that goes past Monte Casino ( famous ww2 battle site) , Rome, Montepulciano (medieval hilltop town) and to be fair we saw a number of hill top towns and then Arezzo.

About 75 miles from Arezzo we had a near death experience when an Italian trucker decided he could drive 0.5mph faster than his mate and pulled straight into the fast lane whilst we were half way past his trailer and I ended up right against the crash barrier at 80mph. So glad I upgraded the horn before we left home, he reluctantly moved back a foot and we shot through like a cork from a bottle. One of those occasions you want a gun in the tank bag and blow his f#cking head off!

Our really nice restaurant hotel was 20 miles north of Arezzo where we had another nice meal and some cold beer.

Interesting choices on the menu.... :green gri

barak666 · Jul 22, 2022

Day 29

Another long day heading north....260 miles and 38c made this another hard day. We started by giving the bike a wash, as no girl should go home to see her parents looking untidy.

We did the motorway dance round Florence, and Bologna and then through Milan with some tricky navigation which by luck we managed without mishap. We then took the local road to Lecco and Lake Como. We then rode the small lakeside road to Bellagio where we caught the ferry to Griante where our lakefront hotel was. No balcony this time, but we're on the corner so double aspect views of the lake from the windows.

Couple of police oriented highlights happened that day, at Florence a police car overtook us and both officers clapped us and gave us the thumbs up. In Milan we were overtaken by a Lamborghini police car with its lights and siren on....no bad boy is out running that I can tell you.

Beer and pizza that night, then a ride around Como the following day with a stop at the Moto Guzzi factory.

The hotel

Beer with a view...

simondippenhall · Jul 22, 2022

Just caught up with this fabulous journey…I admire your fortitude in the heat, and dealing with the ferry disasters. (and great photos BTW).

The Guzzi really looks the business parked amongst the antiquities. Be interesting to hear how it performed for you, two up….and how it was in fuel consumption etc.

Looking forward to more instalments! Great ride report.

Posh Pete · Jul 22, 2022

What a fantastic trip. I last did the Greece to N Italy section with the present missus in 1973 - hitch hiking! You're giving me ideas about doing it again on my RT!

Ta for posting. :thumb2

barak666 · Jul 22, 2022

simondippenhall said:
Just caught up with this fabulous journey…I admire your fortitude in the heat, and dealing with the ferry disasters. (and great photos BTW).

The Guzzi really looks the business parked amongst the antiquities. Be interesting to hear how it performed for you, two up….and how it was in fuel consumption etc.

Looking forward to more instalments! Great ride report.

Thanks, Simon....you are the master of ride reports and I a mere novice... :clap

A few more days to post and I'll give you my thoughts about the Guzzi .

barak666 · Jul 22, 2022

Posh Pete said:
What a fantastic trip. I last did the Greece to N Italy section with the present missus in 1973 - hitch hiking! You're giving me ideas about doing it again on my RT!

Ta for posting.

Thanks for the comments. It certainly exceeded what we expected and plan on returning sometime in the future!

Rich C · Jul 22, 2022

Great report this...Very enjoyable reading... And I also admire your stamina in that heat...

Isn't Pompeii wonderful. One of the best historical sites we've been to. I loved the grooves in the stones that hundreds of years of cart wheels had made.. simple things like that make it seem so real. Suspect we stayed in the same hotel as you when we were there a few years ago.. Very handy indeed...

cheers

barak666 · Jul 22, 2022

Rich C said:
Great report this...Very enjoyable reading... And I also admire your stamina in that heat...

Isn't Pompeii wonderful. One of the best historical sites we've been to. I loved the grooves in the stones that hundreds of years of cart wheels had made.. simple things like that make it seem so real. Suspect we stayed in the same hotel as you when we were there a few years ago.. Very handy indeed...

cheers

Thanks, Rich... doing Pompei in the high 30's wasn't part of the plan but temperatures everywhere were unseasonably high. The Hotel Zeus was ideal as it was so close and not silly money!

barak666 · Jul 23, 2022

Day 30

So the next day we awoke to something quite unusual on this holiday, grey sky's and pouring rain - but at least the temperature was more manageable.

We waited until 10-00am to see if things improved and when it didn't we decided to go and get wet. We rode the lake road to Mandello del Lario, when we met another V85 rider and we eventually found the Guzzi factory, where the security guard told us the museum was closed for alterations. Not really a problem as all most people want is photo outside the 100 year old factory gates, which we got.

We then rode round the lake to Olivedo, where we caught the ferry back to Griante. The ferry captain was having a bad day - smacked into loading ramp at the start and then hit the dock at the end...!

We had a very average Pizza meal at the hotel that night and got ready to move on to Switzerland and France the following day.

barak666 · Jul 23, 2022

Day 31

We left Italy and Lake Como and rode 230 miles through Switzerland to just north of Colmar. Temperatures were back up to 37c with a couple of the tunnels going over 40c.

Switzerland has some amazing scenery but I am not a fan of their motorway system - if we'd had time we would have omitted the motorway and used the mountain passes.

That night we stopped in a 16th century inn located in the Alsace wine area near Riquewihr. The Inn specialised in traditional wood-fired oven cuisine with some great local beers.

barak666 · Jul 23, 2022

Day 32

So after a great night in Hotel Gambrinus with some terrific food and beer, we left the next morning and rode just over 200 miles through the Alsace region including a stop at Riquewihr which was very picturesque.

That day was better for temperatures but quite wet in places with lots of thunderstorms enroute.

The stop that night was an Auberge on a working farm near Epernay. The farm provided our meal and wine, all we had to do was cook it.

barak666 · Jul 24, 2022

Day 33

So the ride of 184 miles the next day brought us to Ardres, near Calais for our final stop before home.
The weather was not great with temperatures of 15c to start, and then rising to a sweltering 18c with lots of rain. First thing we did at the hotel was put the linings back in our bike gear as both of us felt chilly.

That nights stop was at the Logis Hotel la Bonne Auberge, a good clean simple hotel with a highly recommended restaurant for our last night before home.

barak666 · Jul 24, 2022

Day 34

And finally home....! This was our longest trip in days to date, 34 days...4808 miles....5 countries...and loads of memories!

A great family holiday in Tuscany, which despite problems proved to be a massive success.

One of the aims of this trip was to improve our knowledge of Greece and Italy, and this we have done in spades....one thing is certain, we will return to both!

The Guzzi has been superb...a new bike to us but she handled everything we threw at her...countless hairpins, gravel, motorways, flooded roads with water going over the cylinders, crazy Greece and Italian drivers and high temperatures - she was the star of this trip!

There were a few occasions during very high temperature days that Guzzi suffered some pinking/pinging...these problems were improved by using high octane fuel and higher revs with low gears. Before the trip I had never really noticed the cat getting warm on the right side of the bike - during the trip in the high temperatures my right leg cooked - new exhaust time when the warranty runs out.

During the entire trip there was probably only two occasions I thought I'd like a bit more horsepower compared to my old GS1150, and that was probably down to me being lazy and not using the gearbox properly.

Finally I would like to thank Roz for once again being my partner in crime in another epic trip - I couldn't ask for anyone better. Roll on the next one!

And yes, somebody forgot to cancel the grass growing...

Some stats...

Petrol approx £750 - 79 gallons

Petrol prices - most expensive was Greece, and the cheapest was Italy.

Tolls cost approx £180 - mostly paid for using a Starling card when our Mango tag refused to work. All tolls in Greece were paid cash.

The Guzzi returned a surprising average fuel consumption of nearly 60mpg, considering it was two up and fully loaded.

Si Yates · Jul 24, 2022

That looks a cracking trip thanks for posting

simondippenhall · Jul 24, 2022

What an epic- and impressive performance by both the Guzzi and its riders. Thanks for posting and great idea to out each day’s route up front for us

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

barak666 · Jul 24, 2022

Thanks, guys....appreciate the comments! :beerjug:

shifty · Jul 24, 2022

just read this report from start to finish,, FANTASTIC, would love to do a trip like that one day, thanks so much for posting :beerjug:

barak666 · Jul 24, 2022

shifty said:
just read this report from start to finish,, FANTASTIC, would love to do a trip like that one day, thanks so much for posting

Many thanks :thumb2

Stavros · Jul 24, 2022

What an epic trip, really enjoyed reading this, thank you!

Ancient Monuments Tour - Italy & Greece

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Still got a pulse.

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Active member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Active member

Well-known member

Member

Similar threads