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Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts

Museo Maserati: The Panini Motor Museum

If you ever have the chance to visit the countryside around Modena in Northern Italy, you'll find one of the most exquisite collection of Maserati cars collected from the last 100 years.  Nestled in one of the barns of a working family farm, you can get a tour of a Parmesan cheese factory, and experience one of the finest displays of antique cars, a collection so incredible it's been colloquially called "Museo Maserati." 

2018 Ducati World Presidents Meeting Day 2 Ducati Factory



Moto Guzzi Museum Motorcycle Tour 2 (1940-1960): Racing Pedigree

Tigh Loughhead visits the Moto Guzzi Museum with NYDucati
A quick walk up flight of stairs yielded another generation of Moto Guzzi racing motorcycles.

Moto Guzzi Museum Motorcycle Tour 1 (1920-1940) in Mandello del Lario, Lecco in Italy

Tigh Loughhead: NYDucati visits the Museo Moto Guzzi in Mandello Del Lario, Italy
Alex and I arrived exactly at the Moto Guzzi Museum, in the small town of Mandello del Lario, at exactly 3pm, which was perfect, as the museum only opens for an hour per day.

V Addio Bellagio as We Bring the Bikes Back to Milan

The rest of the trip will feel odd without a motorcycle.  There is such agency that comes with a vehicle, and an added immediacy or presence on a motorcycle.  A motorcyclist engages with his or her environment in a way that no other mode of travel offers.  I never feel like a tourist on  a bike; rather I feel part of the landscape, as I feel the curvature of little pieces of earth as I wend my way down the road.

IV Circumnavigating Lake Como on BMW Motorcycles

We didn’t get riding quite as early as we wanted yesterday, but we did get a ton of riding in today.  I think cheap grappa last night put me over the edge, and we needed breakfast, but the hotel turned out to be just as creepy as the night before, with the host hovering over the unappetizing continental breakfast that the hotel offered.  Also, no one drinks coffee here (cafĂ© Americano, that is…), but instead; caffeine is consumed in tiny sips of expresso, which isn’t really enough to get me going in the morning. 

III Lago Lugano around Lago Maggiore to Varese

Alex and I awoke this morning amazed at the roads we had already traveled.  Yesterday we explored nearly the entire western half of Lake Como, as well as most of the periphery of Lake Lugano.  Travel has been thoroughly smooth all the way from JFK to Milan to EICMA to picking up our bikes and hitting the road. Newly invigorated from our recent successes, we decided on an ambitious route for the day, to try to explore a THIRD lake, also situated in between Italy and Switzerland, to the west of Lugano, called Lago Maggiore.

II Around a Couple of Lakes from Italy to Switzerland

Milan, Como, Gravadona, Menaggio, Lugano


Rides gone by...