May 2009
Day 4 – Wrong way :-(
I entered the highway near Bolzano – in the wrong direction. That's an extra 50 km……
Day 4 – Back to the Eagles nest: Mandello
When you speak perfect Italian, it's no big deal to get the guard to close the Factory gate so you can take the traditional picture. (Gestures and smiling are international and works too)
Day 4 – Moto Guzzi Factory Museum, Mandello Del Lario
The guide is the same age as the Factory (1921) and speaks nothing but Italian. But he's very charming, and If you ask, you can get permission to cross the whiteropes to get the best angle for your picture.
Day 4 – Moto Guzzi V8
There's probably 5 or 6 Moto Guzzi V8's left in the world, and I know there's one of them in private ownership in Mandello del Lario. So I went to visit the owner and asked him if I could take a few pics.
He informed me that the engine was taken apart due to a damaged piston, but that just made it all even more exciting. He had borrowed the original 1950's drawings at the factory and was having new parts made himself.
That was an incredible experience: I'm now one of the very few people in the world that have seen and touched the internals of the legendary V8 engine. Yep, I'm proud.
Day 4 – Beautiful Lake Como
The Italian/Swiss Splügen Pass is closed due to snow. It's a little hard to understand when it's 25 degrees Celsius in Mandello.
This means that I have to take the ferry from Varenna across the Lake Como, and go by Lugano.
Day 4 – Italy
On this picture it's actually impossible to see that Italy is old fashioned, unpractical, poorly organized, and very, very charming…
Day 5 – 07:00
Nobody else is up yet, so I've just locked the gate and I'm ready for take off.
