'Round the World with an Italian Supermodel

In Milan I realized, though, that the tech sector (mostly still in Silicon Valley) isn't just making hardware and software people want. Companies like Airbnb are giving people who previously had no real options to supplement their incomes a platform to earn in ways they could never have previously. And of course, it allows me to venture into regions and meet people I never would have had the pleasure of meeting.

Like two of the most warm and hospitable people you could ever meet. (The owners of that most incredible place outside of Firenze, above).





Once again, people I've felt I've known my whole life. So wonderfully warm and kind and interesting and enthusiastic about life. On the last day I was there they were both working downstairs. He'd said something and she just started laughing....it was the kind of laughter that was very rare to hear in anyone above the age of 8 or 9. Pure, unadulterated joy. They had love, they had each other and, as the pictures of their devastatingly gorgeous property demonstrate, a home unlike no other.

Clearly, THIS is the Italy most of us dream about and it's real. (PM me if you'd like to book a week at their place, no commission involved.)

They weren't the only new friends I met. While riding nearby on the single-lane/bi-directional maze of roads surrounding the area I stopped to see just how lost I was and.....



Curious little ....... came out to see what the hell all that booming vibration and heat was.

Now, I recall reading a long time ago that there's a viper endemic to Europe that have a tendency to bite unexpectedly (unlike rattlesnakes in CA who get all crazy and frenetic before they strike, often never even striking before slithering off). Was a grass snake the one with the V on its neck or was it the Viper with the V? God damn it--I always remember the details, just not exactly in the right order. But he just looked so damned cute, so what the ..... He was clearly a fan, so I let him indulge in the details of the bike he (she?) was so attracted to.








Maybe she was a she after all?



Not sure. But definitely wanted to come along for the ride.

I did get bit, though.



Only not by a serpent.



It was a Saturday. Everything was closed except a gas station with a bar in it. No one spoke English. Hard to tell in the first photo, but that was air bubbling out of my roadside air-leak test kit (spit). The following day was Sunday, meaning absolutely nothing would be open and the day after that was Monday, which I think was a holiday. Tuesday would follow, but I'm sure there's probably a law about auto part-shops being open, and Wed. was National "Can't Repair a Tire" day.

I rode around and simply could not believe my eyes when I saw a Fiat garage with their garage bays open. After some apologetic Italian I was directed to the owner who spoke a little English. He sicked his "specialist in tire repair on it." He was a grumpy old codger who I don't think liked me very much. I also don't think he believed that I had a hole in my tire until he, too, spit on the back of it, then looked up in surprise at me (for being right) when he saw bubbles.



He tried to get the hole puncture file thing into the hole, but needed a bit of help. A testament to how strong these f'in tires are.



Couldn't help but feel the shame of not having my own kit, but this is the first puncture I've ever had on a bike. In any case....got lucky I found these guys. Otherwise I'd have had to stay indefinitely in the Tuscan hills....

Blade Runner moment. Machine meets its maker:





Machine makes it through the region bearing its name:



After one too many days of not eating on the road, I played it safe and packed a lunch (salami and bread). Need to do this more often. Soon as I find an anti-venom for sodium nitrate.

Salame is good! I grew up with it

The snake you picked up is a grass snake, at least that's what they are called in the UK, usually live near a water source, eat frogs newts etc

sean999r said:

The snake you picked up is a grass snake, at least that's what they are called in the UK, usually live near a water source, eat frogs newts etc

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Yeah, researched it when I got back and decided that, in the future, I should probably ID my snakes positively before picking them up.

My backpack doesn't exactly take all the fun out of riding in the twisties, but it definitely erodes the pleasure more than a small amount. So I stopped at a small town at the base of the Alps (within striking distance to the Dolomites), checked into a small loft, dropped my gear and headed up this road for my first taste of Alpine riding:



Looks a lot more fun than it was. One and a half lanes of two way traffic, turns sharp enough to slice prosciutto and rather stubborn dim-wits who could easily ruin a set of forks.

AntiHero said:

Yeah, researched it when I got back and decided that, in the future, I should probably ID my snakes positively before picking them up.

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Been there done that"¦.Under advice from our "snake guy" picked up a Coral Snake that he said (via phone) was a King Snake and put it in a paper bag. When he met up with me and opened the bag he dropped it and yelled "oh ....." I should have punched him.

NOLA

The pics of this ride really don't need any sort of description:

Fantastic pics. Been round Italy a few times now on various Ducatis but looking forward to next July which is the target I am aiming at, to take the 1199SPS over to the Amalfi coast for my 50th birthday. That's the plan anyway.

topolino said:

Fantastic pics. Been round Italy a few times now on various Ducatis but looking forward to next July which is the target I am aiming at, to take the 1199SPS over to the Amalfi coast for my 50th birthday. That's the plan anyway.

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Amalfi coast in July? You're a brave man indeed.

This whole trip is a strange experience for me. Some days I feel I've run off the cliff in a cartoon; that if I look down I will fall. It's hard to resist that urge to look down once the thought that none of it might be real enters your head. So I look down, but instead of an accelerating landscape waiting to flatten me, I see only my tank, boots and blurred asphalt. Maybe it's just my way of dealing with a feeling of 'suspension'. Or perhaps it's my mind substantiating sensory data to ensure I'm still awake; a method for my brain to pinch itself and verify that, no, this is not a dream.

Life is ordinarily a continuous arc tracing a line from the luminous point our consciousness begins to the final, "˜darkness visible' point when it all ends. The linearity of this arc conveys clarity; curvature, a sort of recollective resilience. This arc defines the structure of our lives and allows us to preserve, describe, protect and justify how it is we arrived wherever it is we are. Tragedy might precipitate a downward spiral; good fortune or diligence, a voluted ascent. But if this geometric curve follows a steady, continuous, unbroken course for too long it forms a perfect circle. And it's in that circle, on a null, numbing surface that a comfort zone is found; a hermeneutic perimeter circumscribing future possibilities with a static, linear past.

In this model, the intrusive, cartoon-cliff metaphorical thought I continue to have makes perfect sense. At the end of an arc, at a point where it breaks off from a former life, I'm suddenly, inescapably weightless and ungrounded. Days are accidental to the point of being haphazard: random GPS failures, quantum-level decisions to turn right instead of left, or even mindless lapses in concentration, at best, can only form a fragile lattice that fractures behind with each step forward. When I look back there's nothing but an aging relic of my old life receding in the distance and remnant fragments glistening vacantly everywhere behind me.

And with nothing determinate in front of me, even relaxation can be notably intense. With every new day I just blindly step off, hoping this transparent precipice supports another day of unintended experience.

How many miles are on this bike now? Is it a 2012 and how has it held up, any issues?

no, he switched to a 2014 after the high idle problem couldn't get fixed on time before his departure.

See you at my home, Dennis. You are welcome to have dinner.

Anti U coming by Norway this year or is that next year, but if you do come by, we can provide shelter for a few day in the Oslo area if you drop by

jag850 said:

How many miles are on this bike now? Is it a 2012 and how has it held up, any issues?

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Issues were pretty much nil until the high idle thing. Ducati did a great job trying to fix it under warranty--and definitely didn't start out with the cheapest, most cost effective repairs (new heads, new pistons/rings). Fortunately, nothing nothing major was wrong. Unfortunately, the issue of the high idle persisted despite the $$$ parts. Trip couldn't wait for a fix, so I regretfully traded my beloved first bike in so I could get on with getting on.

Panigale1199R said:

See you at my home, Dennis. You are welcome to have dinner.

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Email sent. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Mordor: I have to wait 'till next year for Norway. See you around, hmmm....May?

amazing journey you have there antihero.... i envy ur courage and funs you are having... wish i could do the same thing if it wasnt for these bills i need to pay every month.... lol

gl and hf on your journey!