Friday 22.04.2011 - we rolled into Sondalo and quickly found our hotel. You could hardly miss it! It clung to the side of a mountain and overlooked the small village of Sondalo. Great. Greg hates heights! Nevertheless, we booked in and then parked the P-D in the garage underneath. The driveway was a side alley down the side of the mountain with a 90 degree turn at the bottom. Clean undies for Greg after that one. We found 7 German bikes parked there and later...

Thursday 21.04.2011 - You could spend weeks if not months riding The Dolomites. There are so many roads and by ways, both sealed and unsealed, that cover the stunningly beautiful region. Prior to leaving the Hotel Nes Crepes (with full bellies) we slimmed down the P-D by removing the panniers and tank bag and taking out whatever we could from the top box. This makes handling so much easier with 20-30 kilos pealed off. We also put on our thermals and rugged up...

Wed 20.04.2011 - We packed up and headed off for the Dolomites, which is a mountain range in the northern regions of Italy that border Austria. It is unique for its mountain structure and beauty. It also has beaut bike roads and that is what takes us there. Our initial destination was Pozza Di Fassa and a small, affordable hotel called Hotel Nes Crepes that we found on the net and decided to stay for two days so we could dedicate a full day to riding to Cortina...

Tuesday 19.04.2011 - Today we visited the Ducati Factory & Museum - yeah!! To arrange a tour of the Ducati Factory and Museum you are required to book on line, you can't just front up and buy a ticket. So we booked on line. The problem was, and it doesn’t say so on their web page, is that you are required to book a week in advance. Anyway, we booked 3 days in advance and were rejected. So we fronted up yesterday on spec at what looked like a security ga...

Monday 18.04.2011 - We left our hotel, the Locanda Del Mulino at about 8.30 am for the 40 km ride to Bologna for today was supposed to be the visit to the Ducati Factory & Museum - but we were guzzumped. No vacancies for either so it was come back the next day. All was not lost however, as the P-D needed a nice cool drink of new oil (olio) and a filter so we headed to the local Bologna Ducati dealer where we met Andrea STIVANI who kindly helped us out by ...