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CIMT Italy 2018


Selden

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Getting here was not half the fun. First an unexpected passport issue, then when we finally hit the air 2 days later, our flight to Rome had to turn around near Washington, DC because of an electrical problem that also affected the navigation system. Although Charles Lindbergh did it, not the best idea to cross the Atlantic at night without nav. As a result, we landed at 5:15 Wednesday afternoon, rather than 10:40 as originally scheduled. With three days lost, we decided to skip Florence this trip, and see Rome.

 

CIMT MC tour starts tomorrow morning. Riders meeting this afternoon, walk over to the garage to pick up the bikes, then group dinner at a local restaurant.

 

We are staying at the Kolping Hotel, Casa Domitilla (Adolph Kolping was an interesting person), on the south side, outside the old walls, right next to the Catacombe di Santa Domitilla, and getting in a lot of walking in this quarter of the city.

 

No photography allowed in the catacombs.

 

slide6.jpg

 

Can't wait to throw a leg over a saddle (GS700) tomorrow and get away from Roman traffic. Weather forecast is mixed, but that's what rain gear is for.

 

Travelog here: https://plus.google.com/collection/kGXsMF

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Not a classified (yet) but if it's still available when we return, I'm buying a 2017 F700 GS that Hourglass Cycles in Buford, GA has for sale. I plan to put up my (Boston Green!) 1999 R1100 RT up for sale when we get back.

 

The F700 GS weighs about 130 pounds less, so lit's much easier for someone my size to toss around, but it makes about the same amount of power, so the power/weight ratio is much better. I had an absolute blast on the GS today, riding from Rome via mostly twisty inland roads, eventually to the sea. The engine is very smooth and torquey, and apart from difficulty finding neutral (which seems to be endemic to this model), shifting was as slick as a Japanese transmission.

 

I am totally smitten. Most of the others on this trip are on R1200 BMWs, a mixture of R, RS, RT, and GS, and Pam and I on the F700 GS. Since we have a baggage truck following (or getting ahead, if the driver takes a more direct route), I elected to ditch the GIVI top and side cases, which shaved a few pounds, and more importantly, about 18" from the width, which was greatly appreciated in traffic through small Italian towns with narrow streets and crazy drivers.

 

PS : As long as you don't mind eating punishing amounts of Italian food, Francesco of CIMT is a terrific host/guide/leader. He took us on some challenging roads today, as well as two nights in a row to exceptional eateries, but not expensive eateries, such as Pizza A Metro Da Gigino / University of Pizza in Vico Equense, where they make pizza by the meter.

 

pizza-a-metro-da-gigino-universita-della-pizza-vico-equense.jpg

 

Several of us are already talking about fasting at some point. https://www.facebook.com/CIMTbikes/.

Edited by Selden
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Marty Hill

Selden, I did 6k miles on my 700GS last sept. 2k to Montreal Airport and return plus about 4k in eastern Europe over a month. Great bike. Had I known you were thinking of one, I'd have loaned you mine for a day in N. GA. they are wonderful and much lighter as you've found.

 

 

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Thanks for the confirmation, Marty. We have five R1200s, one Ducati scrambler, and Francesco is on a Multistrada 1250 (Riding a Ducati 20-30 km in heavy traffic in 1st gear is not a great experience). The F700 is by far the best suited to these roads and traffic. Between the light weight and the leverage of the wider handlebars, it's highly flickable, which makes changing a line (to accommodate a pothole in the middle of a hairpin turn, for example) much easier.

 

We're riding ~300 km/day, eating 3-4 hours a day, which doesn't leave much time for writing. Off to Matera today, and a hotel built inside a cave.

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We are at the mid-point, and I can recommend CIMT/Francesco without reservation. We have a group of 4 couples, two solos (father and son). As always happens in a group that size, abilities vary. Three of us ride near the front, the other three at the back. It's much more fun following a good rider (Francesco) than a bad one (who shall not be named, but dropped an R1200RT at our first stop, then fell during two hairpin switchbacks the next day — he's going to have some significant damage costs.

 

Francesco is good at herding cats, and sets a pace that the front runners are comfortable with, while still stopping at intersections and other points if the rear three disappear, and going back to find them, as has happened twice — once after exiting an AGIP station that was only 200 meters from our Rome hotel. An average day is ~300 km, unless weather forces a detour to less challenging roads.

 

The eating and conversation are at least as good as the riding, and every night we tell him to order whatever is good and local. Often as not this leads to a culinary landslide. At the end of our meal in Sapri, the restaurant presented us with an entire bottle of , which we had to finish. I see a home brew experiment in my future....

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Flying back Wednesday, May 16.

 

Overall, a great trip, especially the riding and eating, despite a sinus infection may have morphed into pneumonia; I should know for sure by Friday.

 

At our last meal, I told Francesco he should rename his company "Francesco's Eating & Riding Tours."

 

Out of 6 bikes, only 2 riders never went down, and I count myself lucky to be among the 2 (probably would not be had I been riding anything bigger than the F700). After 5 days of riding, I finally mastered the technique for blind, uphill, right-hand hairpins <180° (there were a few scary moments early on, but I managed to avoid oncoming traffic, and on the last two days never crossed the center line).

 

Remind me never to go to Rome during high season again. It's a different city from 1964, dirtier, more crowded, and the traffic is worse than ever. I don't like big cities in general, and especially don't like large crowds. The further away we got from Rome, the better things got, with the Matera being the high point of the trip. But don't even think of visiting Matera in 2019, as they will be the European Capital of Culture, and everything is already booked solid.

 

Matera-allimbrunire.jpg

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Alitalia checkin and flight went smoothly, and we landed at JFK on time, with plenty of time to get through passport control, transfer our checked luggage to the Philadelphia flight, and get to the departure gate.

 

Our 4:15 takeoff got pushed back to 5:15, then 5:30, then we sat on the runway for 40 minutes before taking off. We stopped for food on the drive down to Delaware, and finally arrived at 9:00 p.m. We could have driven from New York to Delaware in less time.

 

We were travelling for 24 hours yesterday (same as the flight over 2 weeks earlier). I can't remember a trip where so many things went wrong, but still turned out to be so enjoyable.

 

We will be staying 5 nights in Delaware, then driving back on Monday. Once home, there will be the final reckoning with the scale.

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