Amalfi Coast
             Ride to Pesaro

I didn't see much of Maoiri when I arrived after dark the night before. When I got up early the next morning, I found that the hotel (which was one block off the beach) lay at the foot of a cliff with other buildings above it.
The BMer had had a good night's rest in a posh underground garage and was set to go.
When I rode back up to the entrance, these two couples from England were taking up the front entrance territory. They had been on a trip to Greece, took a ferry to Italy then stayed on the Amalfi Coast, wanting to travel up the west coast on the way home.
The Hotel de Rosa. So easy to pick out the sign that morning, but soooo hard to find in the dark!! :)
When I rode back out to the sea, I was not disappointed by the view.
The road curling around the turretted building seemed so ominous the night before. Now, in the light of day, it just seemed really cool!
A few more views of the marina...
... and the beach...
... and it was time to carry on, promising myself that this would be an excellent place to spend a week, meandering around the mountain roads and sunbathing and swimming.
The tiered mountainsides in Italy are so very awesome.
The views from the coastal road were so much less intimidating in the daylight and SOOO much more enjoyable!!
Plenty of interesting buildings...
... and SOOOO much eye candy!!
I suppose that the low lying clouds would still have affected a daytime ride further west, but at least you'd have daylight to make better judgements on road conditions.
Look at the colour of the water!
Awesome!!!
With the views so great "looking out", you have to remind yourself to "look in" otherwise you'd miss something like this.
Another perfectly aligned beach area. I wonder what they'd do with someone like me who would (on purpose) mess with too much perfect.
I pressed on. Half way across the trek, I stopped for a latte and got a nice "hello, how are you". :)
The interior of Italy lacks the brilliant blue water BUT...
... there is so much GREEN! The mountains are so easy to "hang loose" in.
The appearance of terra cotta rooftops in that peaceful sea of green is somehow refreshing.
After I crossed the river...
... and climbed back up the hillside...
... I had a great view of Lago di Bomba.
It didn't take long to reach the coast after that. I followed the Autostrade from there. The Autostrade was a small distance away from the coast and above it so you could get great views down into the populated areas. How about this stadium? I'm not sure exactly where this was. I had just stopped in a turnout to stretch my legs a bit.
Time to stop and smell the flowers... After a long day's ride, I'm finally in Pesaro!
The longer shadows show that it was fairly late in the day when I arrived there. As I turned onto this street, the motorcycle's engine died. Overheated?? This fellow, Marco, stopped to help me. Thanks, Marco!
After a few minutes, the engine actually started but as luck would have it, there was a Yama dealer across the street and I couldn't resist going in for a peek!
They'd just had test rides for the new FZ8 and the Super Tenere. Too bad I missed that chance! Here's the FZ8.
Here is Emmanuel, Valeria and Sylvana showing off the other colour of the FZ8.
I don't know if we've ever had this series in Canada - the XJ6.
How about an R1...25! I suppose since European laws restrict new riders from driving anything more than a 250(?), there is a real market for these. Manitoba should think of alternatives like this instead of jacking up motorcycle insurance!!!
Now here's a little "Teazer"... the TZR50
So... you're in an Italian Yama dealer... What else would you expect but to see a special edition "Giggle" retro scooter with Valentino colours?
Then they had the Aerox Fiat Yamaha Team Race Replica... Valentino and other members of his team use these things to scoot around the race tracks from one place to another.
For the young crowd, a YZF-R125 Race Replica! OK, I expected to see bike models I hadn't seen in Canada... What I didn't expect to see...
... was Valentino Rossi's OWN, PERSONAL bike! Turns out Gadani Moto SRL is Rossi's Yama dealer. Yes, they told me, he gets bikes from Yamaha as part of his contract and this R1 is one of them.
Then Valeria showed me the requisite pictures (I didn't have to pretend to be impressed... I WAS!). And when Emmanuel learned how big a Rossi fan I was (I really don't think this is unusual - many people are - however), he gave me a Rossi shirt for free! Oh boy!! Turns out Valentino lives/lived?? near Tavullia which is a stone's throw from Pesaro. I guess I didn't do enough homework before coming to Italy. I picked Pesaro as my coastal stop because it didn't seem so "big city", more friendly and home-like, and here it's a Rossi "hotspot"!!
Anyway, here's Gadani Moto and don't just go there because of Valentino. Go there because the people there were so friendly and knowlegable.
As for Pesaro being "friendly and home-like", I hit the jackpot.
What an absolutely gorgeous place...
... big enough to see different things...
... small enough to get a nice, cozy feeling.
The beach was pristine.
I truly enjoyed my twilight beach walk...
...
Two days, two places I'd go back to in an instant... Maoiri and Pesaro!
On the beach, there was a brightly lit carousel. I wished I was young enough to climb on again. What is it about carousels? They're not a complicated ride but they feel so great!
LOVED this! "Palla di Arnaldo Pomodoro".
And this is Villa Ruggeri. The villa is actually a beautiful pale green but of course you can't see that in a night photo.

Below, you can see the long ride I had coming from Maoiri to Pesaro.

Return to main page.
Previous page.
Next page.