• 10 Jul I woke up in Trieste and went down to the "beach" to dive in with the boys. Then rode back to the hotel. On the way I had an epiphany. On the way there, I kept getting cut off by little girls in sandels on motor scooters. Coming back, the lane was empty on my side and an angry swarm of Vespas came towards me passing the cars on their side. Then I got it, the rule of the road in Italy is simply that one may and should fill in any empty space on the road.

    On the way to Venice, I stopped at my first gas station and learned my next lesson. There were only three pumps. One was labeled "Supreme". Ok, that's clear - that's high-octane gasoline. The second pump was labeled "Diesel". Also clear - that's diesel. Then there was "Gasoleo". Well, that must be regular gasoline, yes? No - turns out that is diesel number 1. And it turns out that a 1983 R80ST will actually burn this quite nicely once above 6500 RPM, which is crusing speed on the Autostrada. Going slowly, it runs very badly and any acceleration at all causes massive pinging, but it got me over the bridge to Venice.

    BTW, some stations do have regular gas, which is "Gasolina". Now you know.

    In Venice, one arrives at a fairly small parking lot. If you have a car, you need to use the parking garage. If you have a motorcycle, and if you can find a spot, you can park for 24 hours free outside.

    I did and found a hotel just across the steps by registering at the kiosk in the parking lot. After checking into my tiny opulent room, I went for a boat tour that ended at the San Marcos Plaza and took my own walking tour back to the hotel and dinner.

    After eating dinner, I was making some travel notes on my laptop and the waiter asked me to leave. I saw no difference than what I was doing and the lone woman at another table who was writing postcards and told him so, but he was quite angry with me. I think it was more that I was a lone man in Venice. I got a few remarks from local staff that indicated that I was at least wierd if not downright unwelcome among all of the vacationers and honemooners.
    1st DayPictures

  • 11 Jul On the 2nd day, I took the boat tour that goes in and out to the main channel. This is where the cruise boats are, and the tour starts by the train station where people transfer from the Orient Express to cruise ships. The tour also includes passing by the landing of the shop where gondolas are made. This is the last shop where they know how to do this. When these guys go away, the gondolas will be made of plastic and the conversion of Venice to a Disney-esque replica of itself will be complete.

    In the afternoon, I went to move my bike from the 24-hour parking. Cold and at low speed, it barely ran. I went back out the bridge to the mainland to look for a garage where I could disassemble and clean the carbs. I found a gas station but the facilities were minimal and finding a real garage seemed impossible with my non-existent italian. I decided to see if the diesel wouldn't clear up with one more tank of gas, which turned out to be the right decision.

    I spent one more night in Venice, being kicked out of my room, because they needed it for a couple, and being sent to a different but nearby hotel with the same owners. The check-in clerk laughed when I asked if he had a single room vacancy. He said of course, what did he need with a single room?

  • 12 July I checked the weather in the morning and the rain was comeing down from the North - time to move south and west to Florence. I ran down the coast to Ravenna, enjoying my new found freedom having learned the Italian rule of the road. As soon as I filled up the tank again, the bike started running much better. After Ravenna, I turned left and crossed the Alpe Benedetto. Later in Florence, I would enjoy a bottle of water from the abbey I passed here.

    Riding into Florence, I played in the traffic till my intuition led me to a nice hotel. Then I went to see David, and the Medici-era architecture. In the evening, I had a fine dinner in a small restaurant near the hotel.

  • 13 July In the morning, it looked like the rain had moved south and was now coming west. But now the mountains were clear. I packed up and rode illegally into the main plaza to take a few more pictures, and a pictures of a few more pictures of famous building in Florence before I found my way to Cortina in the Dolomites. I rode the Autostrada a long way, though Bologna and various roads north, and the bike was now back to running great.

    I rode into Cortina and got a room at the Olympia Hotel, the same name of the hotel that I had stayed in in Venice the first night. That worked. I got a local map and rode off to do a quick hike around beautiful Lake Misurina. Nice Italian dinner in town while it rained and all was well.

    Pictures of 13 Jul.

  • 14 July Now it was time to go back to Munich. The only thing to say of note is that I made the right turn-off at Lienz to go North up the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße. Then it was back on the Autozug to go back up North. I arrive in Düsseldorf on the 15th, ride back up to Enschede, and spend the night again visiting Rik.