The tour is over! Everybody in one piece. Names like Pisa, Siena, Assisi, Montalcino, Tavullia, La Crete and much more will have a different meaning to you now. I hope you enjoyed the Italian lifestyle, the culture, the food, the riding - the tour. Have a safe flight back home. We hope seeing you again.

All the best Ursula and Pierre

Day 8: San Marino - Florence

over two stretches of the Appenin we are going back today to Florence. National Parks, nature, and passes....

Rudy ready to go

so is Reto! But were is John`s motorcycle key???

First stop at the castle of San Leo

after the first 500 curves we deserved an excellent lunch. A pipe, a cigar, a little bit sightseeing at La Verna

even the horses love Italian coffee

last stop at Passo della Consuma

there is no GS, everything is red.... Ducati

Day 7: Restday San Marino

The plan is to go down to the Adriatic coast, have a look at the beaches called the "German Barbeque", visiting Simoncellis memorial and Misano Race Track and having a coffee in Tavullia, hometown of Valentino Rossi.

Be try to have lunch at the Strada panoramica adriatica at a place called "Falco". Maybe we are lucky and we`ll meet Valentino.

view to the Monte Feltro Mountains

uiuiui - I thought its gonna a be a restday today, even for the tourguides. But some of the tough guys wanted to ride. We will go down to Rimini, we`ll take the swimming suits, just in case

We start at 9.30h. Because at 9.00 h the Mille Miglia is passing by on their last lap to Rome

the mille miglia on the start

we went on dry streets down to the Adratic Sea, to the German Barbeque beaches. The sun was coming - I mean not really but nearly

Marco Simoncelli`s memorial in Coriano

Bel Sit - a fishrestaurant high above the Adriatic Sea

Yummy, yummy

that was my choice

On the Strada Panoramica Adriatica - bellisimo

Rudy - thank you, it was your idea to go for a ride today. And we had a perfect ride

Rossi`s Ranch in Tavullia

in Rossi`s Cafe the fans watched the qualification for the Mugello race on sunday

no Cappucchino without the "46"

high above San Marino in "Nido del Falco" the Eagles Nest we celebrated Rudy`s 50th birthday.

He got a special treatment today - 2 Tourguides and him on a perfect restday ride

Congratulation Rudy to your milestone holiday

full moon, clear night - its gonna be a sunny day tomorrow, yeah

6.Day: Assisi-San Marino

Weather forecast was horrible today - but lucky as we were, we made it dry and safe to our first stop in Cortona. Passo di Cerventosa direction Citta di Castello, Bocca Serriola another twisty pass and in the afternoon we had at least a picture stop in Urbino. Ok, the last half an hour was a bit wet, but we made it.

Cortona - high on top of a hill, filmset for "Under the Tuscan Sun"

thanks to Edelweiss we have different motorcycles

Urbino - the unique Renaissance town, birthplace of Valentino Rossi. The palace of the Duke of Montefeltro facing the street and showed the power of the city in the old days and still now.

5. Day: Restday Assisi

Beautiful sunny day invited us to take the bikes and drive south to the Nationalpark of Monte Sibilini - which is as well called the "Tibet of Italy" . A coffeestop in a nice littlle village called Norica made the day perfect.

Norcia - birthplace of Saint Benedict

Rudy on top of the great plain

Arth and Rudy

Monte Vettore

Castelluccio

After a great ride here some impression from Assisi the city of peace, San Francis town.

here the Cathedral

4. Day : Siena - Assisi

This is a riding day at its best! Meteo blue - the Italian weather forecast - had 90 % chance of rain - we had sunshine .

To the average Italian tourist, an itinerary that includes Siena, Montalcino, San Antimo,  Assisi, Bagno Vignoni sounds like a cultural overkill. Tonight these names will have a different meaning to us.

And riding is spectacular here!

Bagno Vignoni - the little village dates back to reh Roman times and was a popular overnight stop for prilgrims on their way to Rome. 36 springs of hot sulphurous water bubble up into a picturesque pool, built by the Medicis.

Picnic at Bagno Vignoni - under the Tuscan sun

just beautiful

3. Day: Restday Siena

Crete - that`s the area south of Florence, well known for the calendarpicture-like driveways with cypress alleys. Wonderful! As it rained hard yesterday, we found clean roads, no traffic and a lot of curves.

San Galgano - a historically important ruin,standing completely isolated on a flat plain. It was abandoned for reasons unknown in the 15th century. 1962 a Roman monk settled down here and brought life back to this place of peace. You will feel it!

Happy Danielle 

yes, that is typical Tuscan landscape

Pierre waited with a surprise for us. All Italian specialites. Thanks Pierre. And I must say I like that when I am coming back from a nice ride and the male part has done the picnic . Ok, tomorrow it will be the other way round.

And Siena in the afternoon. Pizza del Campo - one of the most beautiful plazas in Italy.

Il Palio - the famous horse race takes place here twice a year

Santa Maria Assunta - Siena`s cathedral is one of Italys great Gothic structures. Building began 1196 and was largely completed 1215

the interior is really stunning. Walls and pillars continue the black-an-white-stripe theme of the exterior.The vaults are painted blue with golden stars

after looking up - look down... you`ll see the cathedrals most precious feature - the inlaid-marble floor. 56 glorious panels, done by about 40 artists over the course of 200 years, depicting historical and biblic stories.

2. Day: Florence - Pisa - Siena

the highlights of Tuscany in one day!! We couldn`t go through the Chianti area, everything was blocked due to the Giro d`Italia.

We decided to go to Pisa. Weather forecast was horrible, but we are in Italy - so expect the unexpected.

Piazza dei Miracoli - the place of miracles in sunshine, but the hell was waiting for us....

Danielle and Arthur

1173 they undertook the first construction work, barely 2 m above sea level, shaky ground, clay and sand to a depth of more than 40 m was hardly ideal for italys most monumental icon. 3 storeys completed, the earth below started to give. Some meetings, some espressos than 100 years later they worked on it again. Their solution was compensating the leaning with a "banana curve" You can still see it....

Marina di Pisa - the Mediterranean Sea

after a sunny time at the sea we hit a thunderstorm and hale!!!!

we hided in San Gimignano in a bar, put the whole floor under water and meet these guys having a bachelor party. They had a big meal already and at least 1 bottle of Chianti each and they didn`t care at all about the weather

San Gimignano - the Manhattan of Tuscany. Just to give you guys an idea what we missed. You have to come back...

Welcome to the Tour of Tuscany - the spring version. It`s green everywhere, everything is blooming, specially these white Robinie trees. There is a smell outside like in the production hall of Channel

A short intruduction to our start hotel,, south of Florence - Villa Pitiana -  another awesome handpicked Edelweiss hotel we work together with for nearly 20 years.

Situated 430 m above sea level, first mentioned 1039, the oldest part of the Villa was built in the 14th century. Due to the strategic position, high above the Arno valley, 1483 Lorenzo il Magnifico de Medici tried in vain to purchase the Villa. Villa Pitiana was restored several times, the Villa itself as well as the Abbey connected to it. Every room is different, Modern Italian design and colours combined with these old walls and historical furniture makes this place so special.

The bikes are already at the parking lot, waiting for beeing cleaned and getting prepared for the handover tonight. Weather forecast is perfect, the streets as well, 1000 of curves are waiting for us, as well as delicious food, passionated Italians and a lot of interesting history. More about this gorgous peace of land and our tour soon... stay tuned....

We have an "Angels" group - Arth and Danielle Engel (German word for angel), Rudolph Angeli (Italian word for angel) and some non-angels John Powell - all American, and Reto from Switzerland.

Wellcome to the welcome briefing....

and afterwards "bistecca fiorentina" served by Antonio