Archive for category Vespatour
Il Vespatour in Diretta Radio a New Generation
After 20 galleries for a total of 1004 photos, the Vespatour went even live on the radio! 😀
On tuesday, april 30, together with Melly and Marti, speakers of the New Generation feature on Radio Codogno, and DJ Giancarlo, we talked about the solo-journey riding my Vespa around Italy I did on august 2006.
I love radio as a communication media, since it leaves a lot to the listener’s imagination, and in this case the challenge was making interesting an experience that I mainly reported through photos until now.
I think the number of questions and answers about the most curious parts of the journey, as well as the phone calls with Marco and Valentina, two friends I met during the stops in Tuscany, made the show dynamic and interactive. 🙂
There were even some funny moments, thanks to the two nice speakers, and special touches such as broadcasting songs best suited to the main stops of the journey.
It was my first time on air, and that didn’t make things easy for me, but I won’t tell you anything else, download the recording of the italian show and enjoy listening it! 😉
Audio quality is far from perfect at the beginning, but it gets better after the first minutes.
Vespatour 2006 part 20: Recanati… THE END!
What’s beyond the hedge of the infinity?
The hedge “that excludes the greater part of my view of the farthest horizon“, as wrote Leopardi in his immortal poem, The Infinity.
The end of a journey? The beginning of a new one?
For me it was just like that: on august 31, 2006, in Recanati, the last stop of the journey on my Vespa that gave me endless emotions and surprises, I climbed upon the hill of the infinity, where the native house of Leopardi is located.
In company of a guide from the Centro Nazionale di Studi Leopardiani, I reached the hedge, she left me alone and… I looked beyond! 🙂
The quiet panorama beyond the hedge, with the Sibillini Mountains in the background, mixed with what eyes couldn’t see: the tide of sensations I felt along the journey and the uncertainty of the future that was waiting for me once back in Como.
Three years later I almost feel like being there again, thanks to the photo of the hedge I always keep on my desk.
The 52 photos of the twentieth gallery are dedicated to the last stop of the journey, between Loreto and Recanati, with the last one shot in Rimini before going back to Como.
I hope that through the report of the Vespatour I managed to give back some of the pleasure of traveling, while meeting people and discovering new things.
It’s also my Thank You to the people who recommended me where to go before leaving, welcomed and helped me during the journey and to whom, after reading the report on the blog, will be willing to visit the wonderful places I described.
Safe Travels! 😀
Vespatour 2006 part 19: San Giovanni Rotondo and Vieste
My relatives in Bisceglie are devoted to Padre Pio and they often talked about San Giovanni Rotondo.
On august 28, 2006, I went there with my Vespa to visit a holy place so important for all those devoted to the monk from Pietrelcina.
It was an important stop even for me, especially since a few days earlier I visited Assisi and the Eremo delle Carceri of San Francesco, another great example of humility.
Deep thinking and meditation are the words I could associate to the visit of the places where Padre Pio lived and received the stigmata, now valorized by a modern church designed by Renzo Piano.
After the visit to San Giovanni Rotondo, before getting back to Bisceglie, I went to the beach in Vieste on the splendid Gargano coast.
When I was a kid I used to spend the summer holidays there, camping with my parents, and that’s where I learned to swim! 😀
The 53 photos of the nineteen gallery describe the last two days in Apulia.
On august 30 I was going to leave from Bisceglie to the last stop of the Vespatour: Recanati, searching for the hedge of the infinity! 🙂
Vespatour 2006 parte 18: Bisceglie
The sea, at last! 🙂
After 21 days traveling at close stops, riding my Vespa for a total of 3000 kilometers, a week at the seaside in Apulia was the closing panacea of the Vespatour.
I needed to rest not only physically, but also mentally, since during 21 days I stared for the first time at some of the artistic marvels that Italy preserves, and for each one of them the sensations were deeply intense.
Using an effective metaphor: I got drunk with art! 😉
The welcome of my relatives in Bisceglie, in the province of Bari, was special to say the least: for a few days Nicola and Rosa made me feel like a member of their family.
Nicola accompanied me to visit the town and its surroundings, while Rosa made me taste her culinary specialties: one day meat and fish the other, nothing was missing on the table at all! 😀
During those days of relax at seaside I visited the mysterious Castel del Monte, a strategic observation point of Frederick II, now depicted on the 1 cent italian Euro coins.
To the castle, the welcome of my relatives and the seaside of Bisceglie, are dedicated the 41 photos of the eighteen gallery of the journey.
Vespatour 2006 part 17: Caserta
A 3 kilometers-long garden, with an incredible view both towards the hill and the royal palace! 🙂
The Royal Palace of Caserta really surprised me and I think I did a good choice by stopping there in the morning of 23 august 2006, while I was traveling from Rome to Bisceglie, in Puglia, where I was going to spend a few days at the seaside to rest after the long journey around Italy riding my Vespa.
The 54 photos of the seventeenth gallery are entirely dedicated to the Royal Palace of Caserta, to the sumptuous royal apartments, which I visited while listening to an audioguide, and most of all to the marvelous garden and its fountains. The complex was actually built by Carlo III di Borbone with the aim to rival with the Royal Palace of Versailles.
I’ve never had the chance to visit Versailles yet, but I think the astonishment I felt in Caserta will be still in my mind when I’ll do that. Who knows, maybe in the next Vespatour… 😉
Vespatour 2006 part 16: Rome
Staring at the magnificence of the Sistine Chapel has been among the best moments of the Vespatour, so intense that it’s impossible to describe it with words or pictures .
In particular I wanted to see the “hand of creation” that, stylized by an friend artist, I choose as logo for the blog.
The Sistine Chapel is the last stop of the long visit route inside the Vatican Museums, the apex of the wonders exhibited.
My visit to the Vatican Museums is described in the sixteen photo gallery.
During the three days I spent in Rome I couldn’t miss a romanesque-style evening dedicated to the local cuisine: on august 21, together with Stefano, a Vespa rider from Como who joined me in Rome by train, we went to Ariccia, in the Castelli Romani area. The laughs in good company and the juicy “porchetta scrocchiarella” (pork roast) of the “fraschette” (outdoor inns) were among the silliest things we did until now! 🙂
The stop in Rome couldn’t be complete without a photo in front of the Colosseum, taken by a girl wearing a t-shirt with “Monnalisa” written on it… thanks Monnalisa! 😉
The next stop, on august 23, was going to be the Royal Palace of Caserta.
Vespatour 2006 part 15: Rome
They say that all roads lead to Rome, and that’s what happened even to me during my Vespatour, the solo-journey on a Vespa I did in the 2006 summer.
After a long pause, the photo report of the journey continues with the three days stop in Rome, riding on the streets of the italian capital city to discover historical places and the most famous monuments lighted up by the august sun.
For a couple of days I walked among the “sacred monsters” of the Eternal City: from Piazza San Pietro to Villa Borghese, from Piazza Navona to Piazza di Spagna, from the Pantheon to the Trevi Fountain: memories so deeply impressed in my mind that while browsing the 56 photos of the fifteen gallery I can’t believe almost 3 years already passed! 😀
Still a few stops and the photo report of the journey will be completed.
Vespatour 2006 Part 14: Norcia, Melezzole and Le Marmore
When I was in Toronto three weeks ago I didn’t miss the opportunity to view the Niagara Falls. They recalled me the impressive sight of the Marmore Falls I stared at last year during the Vespatour.
On august 19th, after the visit to Assisi, my solo-journey continued towards Rome, while discovering some of the Umbria’s wonders along the way. I visited Norcia, the town of San Benedetto, a place known for its sausages and ham made from wild boar and pork, and I spent the night in a bed&breakfast in Melezzole di Montecchio.
Rested and restored, the following day I continued the journey on my Vespa and I spent the morning breathing the fresh air surrounding the Marmore Falls area, the natural wonder I already wrote about on the blog.
Here are the 51 photos of the fourteenth gallery of my Vespatour.
As with each gallery, the pictures are geo-localized, which means you just have to click on the map this! button to view their position on Google Maps. 🙂
Vespatour 2006 Part 13: Assisi
Being able to see the “knight with the bowed head” was actually one of the reasons that made me stop in Assisi for a couple of nights during the Vespatour.
My italian literature professor at Lyceum often talked about Assisi, San Francesco and his conversion from a knight to a humble monk.
The sculpture placed in the area in from of the beautiful Basilica Superiore of Assisi symbolizes this conversion.
Not too far from there, the Eremo delle Carceri is a place where you can breathe the spirituality of the Franciscan life in every corner, from the openings in the woods where the monks gathered to pray, to the cells where they rested.
At the Eremo I met a monk who told me “you walked a long way, I can see it!”, he showed me the ancient refectory and then he told me another thing, a sort of a compliment, words I can’t forget and that I’ll keep for myself until I’ll write the book about the journey. 😉
Here are the 45 pictures of the thirteen gallery of the Vespatour.
Vespatour 2006 Part 12: Arezzo
I was in Cortona in the evening of august 16, the eighth stop of the Vespatour, when a guy I met at the hostel recommended me to go to Arezzo, a town I didn’t plan to visit.
When he told me they filmed my favorite movie there, Life is beautiful by Benigni, and that there were panels marking the places where the scenes were filmed, I had no more hesitations and I spent the following day in that magic town.
The first picture shows Piazza Grande. May be someone will recognize the window of the hilarious scene “Maria, throw down the keys!”. 🙂
The second one is where Guido (Benigni) hit Dora (Braschi) while he was going by bicycle and then he greeted her saying “Buongiorno Principessa!“, while the third one is the park near the Cathedral where I rested a few minutes to write a postcard, the second one I sent during the journey, beginning with those words since it was for a girl. 😉
All the 70 pictures of the day I spent in Arezzo are in the twelfth gallery of the journey.
PS: On that postcard I marked the wrong window in Piazza Grande. I noticed that when I was back home and watched Benigni’s movie again…
