Subject: [Ducati] Euro trip (suggestions?)

[Bill Wahl]

I can give you some input here. For 6 years in a row we spent up to
two months each summer based out of Lugano CH on rented Ducati bikes.

You need different goals than the ones that are set in your mind. You
do not want to spend your time entirely touring factories. If you
choose to so so here is some advice. Go put a deposit down on a new
430, or whatever they call the current Ferrari choice at your local
dealer. This qualifies you to take the real Ferrari factory tour
instead of just a museum tour. Marenello is just 40 minute away from
Bologna, so this might be your 'factory' day.

I highly recommend you contact two people. One is Charlie Newdorf. He
can be found at www.moto-charlie.com What he does is organize trips.
The other person is Tom O'Hara whoc is big time on this list:
st2_ at ticino.com Tom can run down to Pellican Drive and arrange a long
term bike rental out of Lugano.

My recommended routes would include basing out of Andermatt from the
Hotel Sur Sonne. From here you can do Susten, Grimsel, and Furka and
back to Andermatt for lunch and then back over Furka the other way,
Nufenen, and San Gottardo back to the hotel. You could leave over
Obereral and head down Lucomagno back to the cut off to San Bernadino
and then take the route over Splugen to Chiavenna and turn up towards
St. Moritz. I would stay in Zuoz and then over Ofenpass to Stevio (or
you could go over Bernia to
Tirano and up Edolo and over Gavia (a favorite) to Bormio and then
over Stelvio. There are a couple of wurst stands on the top of Stelvio
you must have lunch at. From there go to Merano.

Set your sights towards the Dolomites. Two ways to get in there with
one being north and the other trough Bolzano. Get yourself the Alpine
Roads map 1:500,000 Kummerly-Frey. There are many places to stay in
the Dolomites. My fvorite is in Covars in Badia. It is a biker hotel.
Another in Arabba has its own underground biker garage.

As you can see, you won't have time to just do factory tours. If you
want my Corsican routes, well that is another chapter.

Ciao!
Bill

Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 11:19:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Obaa <obaa996 at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Ducati] Euro trip (suggestions?)
To: ducati at ducati.net
Message-ID: <949614.58094.qm at web54302.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Quite a few of you seem to travel to Europe regularly.
 I'm about to go there for the first time, and was
hoping to glean some travel advice....
Through sheer luck, I'll be in Europe finishing some
business just as I begin my sabbatical.  My wife
doesn't want to travel with 2 little kids to meet me,
so suggested that I take a couple weeks travel and
explore by myself; life is good...
I'd like to visit Bologna (what else? :), Maranello
(Ferrari), Vincenza (Campagnolo), Stuttgart (Porsche,
MB), and the Nurburgring.  Anything else
gearhead-related would be icing.  However, I don't
speak Italian or German, and certainly don't know my
way around.  Are there any tours or routes that link
these places together, or hints for getting factory
tours (I understand Ferrari and Lamborghini are hard
to arrange).  Is there perhaps an organized motorcycle
tour (I think something called "Alpine Tours"?) that
follows this route?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Almost
everything is flexible, other than the dates (roughly
early-mid August; is all of Italy still "closed"
then?), and departure airport (Frankfurt).
Many thanks!