When I was in Toronto five weeks ago I didn’t miss the opportunity to go and see the Niagara Falls. This recalled me the impressive sight of the Marmore Falls I stared at last year during my Vespatour 2006.
On August 19th, after the visit to Assisi, my solo journey continued towards Rome, while discovering some of the Umbria’s beauties along the way. I visited Norcia, the town of San Benedetto, a place widely known for its sausages and ham made from wild boar and pork, and I spent the night in Melezzole di Montecchio, in the bed&breakfast section of the regal Palazzo degli Anselmi, where I met Paolo and Samantha, the friends who later produced the contents for i-muse™.
Actually I had the privilege to be the first guest of the bed&breakfast owned by Samantha’s parents.
Rested and restored, the following day I continued the journey on my Vespa and I spent the morning by breathing the fresh air surrounding the Marmore Falls area, the natural wonder I already wrote about on the blog.
Here you have the 51 photos of the fourteenth gallery of my Vespatour 2006.
As with each gallery the pictures are geolocalized, which means you just have to click on the map this! button in order to see their position on Google Maps.

Being able to see with my eyes the knight with the bowed head was actually one of the reasons which made me stop in Assisi for a couple of nights during my Vespatour 2006.
My Italian literature professor at Lyceum often talked about Assisi, San Francesco and his conversion from a venture soldier to a humble monk.
The sculpture placed in the area in from of the beautiful Basilica Superiore of Assisi symbolizes this conversion.
Not too far from there, the Eremo delle Carceri is a place where you can breathe the spirituality of the Franciscan lifestyle in every corner, from the openings in the surrounding woods where the monks used to gather and pray, to the cells where they rested.
At the Eremo I met a kind monk who told me “you walked a long way, I can see it!”, he showed me the ancient refectory and then he told me another thing, a sort of a compliment, a sentence I can’t forget and that I prefer keeping for myself until I’ll write the travel book about my Vespatour.
Here you can see the 45 pictures of the thirteen gallery of the Vespatour 2006.

I was in Cortona in the evening of August 16, the eighth leg of my Vespatour 2006, and while I was talking with a guy I met at the hostel he recommended me to visit Arezzo, a place I didn’t plan to visit.
When he told me that they filmed my favorite movie there, Life is beautiful by Benigni, and that there were panels marking the places where they filmed the scenes, I had no more hesitations and I spent the following day in that magic town.
The first picture shows Piazza Grande in which maybe someone will recognize the window of the famous scene “Maria, throw down the keys!”.
The second one is where Guido (Benigni) hit Dora (Braschi) while he was going by bicycle and then he greet her with the famous sentence “Buongiorno Principessa!“, while the third one is the park near the Cathedral where I rested for some time to write a postcard, the second of the only two ones I sent during the journey, a postcard beginning with that sentence since it was for a very special girl.
The other 70 pictures of the day I spent in Arezzo are in the twelfth gallery of the Vespatour 2006.

     

PS: On that postcard I marked down the wrong window in Piazza Grande. I did notice that when I was back home and watched “Life is beautiful” again…

On August 3 of the last year, during late afternoon, I left for my Vespatour 2006, a journey which gave me a lot of surprises and which I’m telling here on the blog a bit at a time.
With this post I’m actually at the half of it…
The Siena’s Palio always fascinated me: a competition so ancient and beloved by the people living there I thought it had something special I didn’t manage to grasp by watching it on TV.
So last year I coordinated the legs of my Vespatour to be able to attend the Palio.
In the afternoon of August 16, after the visit to San Galgano’s Abbey, I arrived in Siena just before the start.
The atmosphere was incredible, the Contradaioli (citizens living in specific areas of the town) thrilled for their jockey and his horse, while tourists assisted almost scared to the course of the big show.
In the end the Contrada della Selva won, just the one where I parked my Vespa, so I immediately left Siena heading towards Cortona as the celebrations began.
Here you have the 30 photos of the 11st gallery of my Vespatour 2006.

1050 kilometers in three days riding my Vespa: it’s the result of the journey made together with 11 Vespa riders of the Vespaclub Como to join the Vespa World Days 2007, the international gathering organized this year in San Marino.
More than 3000 Vespa riders, a wonderful weather, a nice company and specials such as Nicola L’impennatore and the Arrotino from the Vespaclub Biella made the three days a memorable experience.
The 162 pics I shot will preserve part of the memory.
Anything but less funny was the 2nd National Vespa Meeting Town of Como on June 24, a day in which taking pics was my official duty for the club. Gathering in Como, aperitif in Menaggio and then in Grandola e Uniti for the lunch: 300 Vespa riders enjoyed the sight of the lake and the organization of the event, including the Vespazza Award, la Vespa più Bonazza, given to the nicest girl on a Vespa.
All of the 276 pics I shot are online to the benefit of the Vespa riders who participated.
If you’re in a hurry these are the best 4 of the two events.

My solo Vespatour of the last summer continued from Florence towards southern Tuscany.
I slept just one night at the Ostello del Chianti in Tavarnelle Val di Pesa and I enjoyed it a lot thanks to the people I met there: the kind Silvia, the hostel’s manager and Alessio, a motobiker from Torino.
Valentina, the girl I met in Florence at Econoetica’s offices, recommended me to visit the mysterious Monteriggioni stronghold and to search for the even more mysterious cats without tail living there.
So I did and in the same evening on August 15 I managed to visit also San Gimignano, the 100 towers town.
The following day was anything but less intensive. Following the recommendation by Elisa, a friend from Como trainer at Palestra 100, I visited the San Galgano’s Abbey and I saw the mythic sword inside the rock!
Then I reached the La Meridiana agritourism in Montieri in the Maremma area to bring Elisa’s greetings to Mrs. Mirella, the manager of the agritourism.
In Palazzetto, along the road to Siena to get to see the Palio I met by chance Alberto, Angelo e Claudio, the three great Vespa-riders from Mantua and we finished the launch together.
Here you have the 47 photos of the “authentically Tuscan” tenth gallery of my Vespatour!

After the three nights I spent in Lucca my Vespatour 2006 continued into the hearth of Tuscany towards Florence, passing by Vinci, where there’s the museum dedicated to Leonardo, and then in Anchiano, where I visited the birth place of the Tuscan genius.
In the afternoon of August 13 I entered for the first time inside the Galleria degli Uffizi, a place so full of masterpieces, the Birth of Venus by Botticelli above all, that once exited I almost felt the symptoms of the Stendhal’s syndrome: “What I’ve seen!” I was repeating to myself while walking in the town center.
A town pretty chaotic after all, it was much better riding on my Vespa around the surrounding campaign.
The 52 photos of the ninth gallery of my Vespatour I did with the purpose to discover the wonders of the Belpaese are online.
Enjoy them!

Being in the middle of more than 500 people sharing the same passion for a two wheels transportation mean become legend was a feeling I wouldn’t ever thought to feel when I purchased my Vespa GTS exactly two years ago.
On last Sunday, together with Egidio and Andrea, two members of the Vespa Club Como, I attended the 7th National Vespa Meeting organized by the Vespa Club Mantova, a town that reserved for me some other nice surprises thanks to the Saturn Project.
The day has been intense and focused on the local gastronomy as you can see in the 50 photos of the gallery dedicated to the event and has been even more pleasant due to the fact that I finally meet again the three Vespa-raiders from Mantua I met by chance in Tuscany during my Vespatour 2006: Alberto, Angelo and Claudio.
To them go my special thanks for their welcoming and see you soon to the next meeting, the Vespa World Days in San Marino!

For a Vespa fan visiting the Piaggio Museum in Pontedera it’s almost like a sort of pilgrimage to the Mecca, the origin of everything where you have to come back to at least once in your life.
Pontedera was a obvious leg of my Vespatour and while visiting the museum I had the impression to assist to the celebration of a myth.
While I was watching the video of Corradino D’Ascanio on the Pda available to visitors I was impressed by the easy and friendly way with which he explained the birth of the Vespa.
A confirmation of the fact that the best ideas are the simplest ones.
After a day spent in the museum in the evening I had a nice surprise in Livorno, in the workshop of Marco Quaretta, Peter Moore’s friend, author of the book that inspired my tour around Italy: I found Sophia, the Vespa Peter used for his tour. I couldn’t believe it!
Enjoy the 59 photos of the eighth gallery of my Vespatour 2006 celebrating the Vespa, a little plane that one day left his wings in the sky to become a myth on the ground..

Do you know why they call Field of Miracles the famous square in Pisa hosting the Duomo, the Baptistery, the Monumental Camposanto and the even more famous Leaning Tower?
Because when the poet D’Annunzio saw it he was so impressed that he described it as “Meadow of Miracles” in his 1910’s work “Forse che sì, forse che no”.
I already saw it in the past, but on 11 August 2006, after spending the whole day there I can’t but retain a pleasant memory of the view of the perfectly proportioned buildings and the harmonious spaces among them.
Not to speak of the Tower and the treasures stored inside the Opera del Duomo Museum where I met the kind Serena who other than explaining me the origin of the square’s name she also allowed me to try the PureForm system at the museum.
I hope the 60 photos of the seventh gallery of my Vespatour will serve to bring back some of this miracle in Pisa.