[Ducati] The perfect Italian vacation

[Veloce916 at aol.com]

While in Italy this last trip I had a chance to spend some time with a  
longtime friend's DOC club and he introduced me to his friend who has a new  
touring company in Northern Italy.  After some discussion about what he  does it 
seemed clear that he has organized the perfect touring vacation for a  certain 
type of person, that being anybody that likes Ducati's, Italy,  great food and 
no hassles with living out of a tank bag or moving  luggage every night.  I'll 
explain.
 
What he is doing is small group tours, no more than 8 people.  But  he's got 
a whole lot more control and connections than most people and that's  what 
makes his program special.  He owns a small but exclusive (and  historic) 
restaurant and residence hotel two blocks from the Dianese  factory (this begins the 
unique "connections", this weeks group is going to  Mugello and will meet both 
Rossi and Caprirossi while there for example. The  Dianese family eats at his 
place most day's).  The city is located very  near some of Italy's best and 
most scenic riding. They use several tour guides  that instruct at Ducati's DRE 
schools (a DRE at Imola can be incorporated  into the tour if desired, or 
even a track day, there is one near them that can  be rented - this is much 
easier in Italy then here). They day trip out of one  location, so no moving 
luggage and gourmet meals each night, and the rooms are  suites, bedrooms with a 
kitchen/living room/bath. They have a couple of good  bars and one great disco 
nearby. They have a shuttle for airport pickup, a boat  if you want to go to 
Venice for the fireworks festival, a golf course and pool  nearby if you don't 
feel like riding and several good gearhead museums in  the area if it rains and 
you don't feel like riding.  Now for the best  part. The bikes are all new 
Monster's, '06 MS4Rs and '06 MS2r 1000's.  And  he speaks perfect English, in 
fact his wife is American, from California. 
 
As a person who does a lot of this sort of thing I find his setup unique,  he 
is able to organize special trips to the races, Italian events like Redentore 
 (the Venice fireworks festival).  And, he's able to offer vintage bike  
tours for those of us with bikes in Europe for the Motogiro so I finally have a  
solution to Motogiro Melancholy because I can now extend my vintage bike tour  
right to his door - guides, mechanic and pick up truck will be arranged. 
But most important, his tours offer the ability to get off the bike for  
whatever reason (you drank too much last night, you feel the flu coming on, you  
are just plain tired, you had no idea the riding was this hard, your dog died,  
etc.) and miss not one moment of quality vacation because his location and  
touring plan allows him to turn on a dime. If you think this isn't important  
you've never been on a riding tour with a group. Stuff happens or somebody 
drops  a bike and your day turns into something less than ideal. My friend  just 
came back from riding in South Africa, the whole group had to change plans  for 
the next two days because he jammed his knee and had to be transported.  Not 
with this setup where you are always pretty close to home base. One  thing 
though, you MUST be an experienced rider, these roads are challenging, the  
speeds sometimes fast.  Riding in Italy is exhilarating and not for  beginners. 
 
Paulo (the owner) has offered to team up with Ducati.net and  allow me to do 
what I do for the Motogiro d'Italia - coordinate groups for his  tours.  He 
will provide special welcome packages and special pricing if we  deviate from 
the usual tour. (The vintage bike tour is less money for example,  because we 
will bring our own bikes, he and I just invented this one so details  are still 
emerging)  The normal tour, including the Ducati rental is 2750e  for a double 
booking for a week or 3200e for a single.  This  includes:
 
Individual use of Ducati Monster S4Rs-06 or S2R1000-06.
- 7 nights Lodging and Buffet Breakfast   
- 6 days guided tour of Northern Italy.  
- 5 Complimentary Dinners and 1  Sunday brunch.  
-Ducati.net member welcome package  (codeword: Vicki at booking for this) 
Tours like Estoril or Valencia  MotoGP, Monza F1 or Imola SBK are available 
and priced specifically. (I  checked, he still has space available for Misano 
WSBK weekend.)   If anybody is interested in this or any other trip contact me 
for details.   I'll be organizing the vintage post Motogiro 2007 Sicily tour 
later this year,.  I think it'll book out instantly with my group of riding 
partners from the  Motogiro but if you are interested let me know, if we need to 
we'll book the  week before and the week after as well.... 
Vicki