Foligno

One more sweetie among other ones in Umbria Italy close to Perugia. Not as beautiful as Spoleto which was one of my destinations last October but still not bad at all.

Check it out:

This tiny backstreet was full of these flags:

Parco di Canape:

The missing left leg of this horse statue attracted the attention of locals and police:

Lots of nice houses around but I really liked this one:

Pisa

I couldn't believe that the most popular destination of my trip would be so impressive. How many times have you seen the leaning tower of Pisa? Countless...and then you go there and ... you  go speechless:

...unless you are one of the millions of stupid tourists who try to take the classic "pushing the tower" pose...

The most ridiculous guy I met on my trip:

Last but not least... a girl lost her earring:

Genova

While I write these lines I have a bottle of cheap but strong Grappa in a balcony somehow overlooking the port of Genova. Weather is amazing but my tomorrow's trip to Pisa is predicted to me a bit wet...I came here yesterday after a nice trip from Torino which thanks to my friend Antonello's advises offered me nice pics like these (and videos to be posted later)

If you hate going up and down streets and stairs then the old part of Genova is your nightmare. It is a quite interesting city to visit though, considering the fact that the part of the city around the port consists almost exclusively by very old buildings which offer a nice time travel to the eyes of the visitor.

The fact that this part of Genova is built on a hill offers numerous chances to see the city from above.

This was by far the most impressive thing I found at the old port:

And here's its story:

Genova has some of the most narrow backstreets I have ever experienced - some of them are as wide as your shoulders.

One more impressive thing is the various tunnels in the old city:

While writing this post I already had a couple of glasses filled with Grappa so I'd better stop here...perfect weather and alcohol is weird mix you know...

Cheers till the next one ;)

Torino & friends

On my way from Como to Torino I was advised by my good friend Antonello (who also hosted me there) to take the route through Panoramica Zegna and of course I didn't regret it though it was quite hazy to take decent pictures. Here's two of them:

My stay in this area was a nice chance to rest for a while, meet with our German mate Tobias and change my front worn and punctured tire:

I was treated like a king from Antonello's mum, of course didn't miss the chance to try the local food but also had the honour to visit the amazing gallery of historic bikes this family owns:

I've been riding bikes for so many years but never imagined that I would see in front of me ones with open sump, wooden brake pads and clutch made from cork!!! By the way, the right one in the picture is one of the 5 in total left RTW...oh yes...!

Obviously I did some riding too (yeah what a surprise...) so here's my visit to Gran Paradiso (made it up to 2500 meters as road was closed from snow):

Υ.Γ. Δείτε το όνομα του δρόμου σε ένα χωριό βόρεια του Τορίνο:

Umbrail pass, Stelvio, Como lake

Or in other words from the "cold as ice" to "hot as hell". Leaving beautiful Mustair behind I headed south towards Stelvio (how nice it is to have people waving their hands to you till they loose site of you and your bike as you drive off their place - thank you Felix and Brunner family!) This route leads you through Umbrail pass first which was super empty and super cold on this Monday morning. Amazing route through the snowy mountain and part of the road was under construction with awful grip due to gravel (full tank, fully loaded bike...you bikers know how it feels under such conditions in alpine hairpins...). No pictures from this part but videos to be posted later. 2500 meters high and then you have more to go if you do Stelvio. Here's how it looked there @ 2800 meters:

This is the SS38 that goes down to Bormio - perfect serpentine! 

After these freezing but nice moments I had a rather indifferent route up to Como which was very hot and humid:

I lubed my chain there and just before getting too sweaty I moved on to the place I have booked. Very nice hosts, good chance to relax:

Loved my breakfast!

Tomorrow I head for hot and humid Torino...I know how bad it feels under such conditions but I'll meet some of my best friends there that I haven't met for a couple of years and that's more than enough motivation :) See you soon guys!