First tour around the south of italy! Leaving the capital with 2.8 million residents and potentially 2 million scooters/vespas, we tried to escape from the terrible traffic.

For the one who arrived a few days before there were time enough to have a slice of pizza or a cappuccino on the famous city's squares like Piazza Navona, Piazza di Spagna, Campo de' Fiori, Piazza Venezia and many more!! Some huge, majestic and often adorned with obelisks, some small and pictoresque – got their present shape during the Renaissance and Baroque.

But for all the others the  first stop was just 16km away from our hotel, on top of Alban hill, overlooking the lake of Albano. Our view was towards Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Pope – and one of the  most beautiful towns in Italy.

In the east wing of the summer residence of the Vatican maintains its own observatory with telescopes and science-based priests.

Research at the observatory of the pope priest the Big Bang and black holes. God is not in the way of them, only the street lights - and a few fellow believers, you have difficulty convincing, is that science is not a devil.

Debbie

Coffee Stop in Rocca Massima

CAAAPRESE!!! That's what i need!! Marco

Our lunch stop in Sperlonga, region of Lazio!

Real Italian Pizza - with french fries ... !? Le patatine .... Rocco S.

Corey

Entrance of Pompei

Cunha Pereira Filho Lincoln, and RALF

Chris, Lincoln, Gary, Edith, Stephen and Thomas.

The Brazilian Team: Gary, Lincoln, Marco - with Corey, just south of Mount Vesuvius.

A foto of the Amalfi Coast with Edith and Stephen.

Peter

Prosciutto, crudo, salame piccante, pomodorini, olive, funghi, bresaola, ruccola, formaggio ... and obviously red, white and rosè wine at the picnic in maratea, on the beach!

Morning briefing in Pompei

la statua del Redentore on mount san Biagio

highway to heaven - or at least to the statue of Christ

Ralf doing advertisement of Coffe Carusi

Ready to go!!!

picnic - thumbs up

on the road again ...

World Wide Famous onions of Tropea

Parghelia, just outside of Tropea! Tonight we will stay here ...

Chiesetta dell'Isola - Tropea (last night)

Same same (but this morning)

Marina Grande, photo taken from piazza San Rocco.

Lungomare di Scilla, our lunch stop! Ristorante Grotta Azzurra,  U'Bais!

Schuelke Kathleen

Edith and Stephen

Kathleen and Thomas

All the riders at the beachfront in Scilla - Scigghiju for the lokals .... the calabresi!

Peter enjoys the pasta with "nero di seppia". So did I ...

All good down here? Alias alles fit im Schritt?

Yes, all good so far! So we did have a really nice ride from tropea down to Villa San Giovanni, where we got the ferry to Sicily! Just sunshine on the trip and everybody seems to be happy! Italian life style can be addicted … plenty of good food, loads of coffee, awesome wine for the Brazilians and nice riding! Tomorrow we’ll ride to Mt. Etna, the highest volcano of Europe,  just outside of Catania. Then he have still time enough to explore the beautiful city of Taormina, famous for the Greek theatre, Palazzo Corvaja, the Anglican church and the castle of monte tauro.  AND the best shopping spot on this tour, from Gucci to Armani and Prada – you name it, they have it!

Rookie of the year, Gottfried Kofler

...on the way up to Mt.Etna!

"I like it clean" - from New York and now ith new sun glasses, Corey

It's a long way up ....

...and here we are!

Antipasto - a starter .... mmmmhhhhh

The view down to Taormina, from castello di monte Tauro

naaa, we can NOT complain ....

Cheers from the beautiful island of sicily

Group Photo in Taormina

Cefalu' - what a city!!

The castle in Cefala' Diana, built in the 13th century

the bikes on top of the hill - what a ride!!

Peter der Schloßherr!!

blue sky!!!! since 9 days allready ...

coffe stop at the village of Godrano (Cutranu fo the lokals!)

Allright, now I know why rookie of the year - with a body like this!

the picnic spot in the Ficuzza forest, just after Godrano.

Chris and Steve

der Stammtisch!

Happy Gary!

What a ride today!!

Sooo .... after 9 days of sunshine (oh yes Ursula there are Tours around Sicily with no rain - but you have to do it with the south-tyrolean boys!), we are on the road to Catania - the last stop for this tour! Time is flying when you have fun! That's for sure! Big smiles for dinner we had tonight - they would like to go on for a while! And many different plans and options: a touring center for Sicily for example, or a 10 days around the island trip and much more .... Anyway! With mixed feelings we finish this tour! Surprised by the beauty of the island, sad of the rubbish bags on the side of the road, affascinated by the hills, mountains, forest, vulcano, beach, blue sea, green lakes, oceans of flowers, amazing food, nice people, crazy traffic, easy lifestyle, poverty in the country side, big money in the posh areas, old vespas and fiat panda 4x4, huge SUV's and ferraris, donkey, horses, sheeps and cows along the road, greek temples, roman villages, norman, medieval castles - all this in the last 48hours .... and there is much more! Happy to do the way back to Rome as well, it looks different - but still wonderfull!

Allright! So this is it for the first RTS1201! RTS 1202 is behind the corner ...

See you on the island