Leaving Rome on a motorcycle was an experience that one should suffer as few times as possible. The traffic was horrendous and it seemed that the only way to survive and make progress was to ride like a Roman, after all, ¨When in Rome...¨ and all that.
Riding the latest water cooled BMW GS 1200 makes that relatively easy. The engine is marvellous with great acceleration, easy to wheelie off the throttle in first as I discovered when I gave it the sort of handful that I would normally give my GSA for a brisk take off.
We stopped for a while in Castel Gandolfo, summer home of the Pope and where the recently retired pope is staying I think. However, neither came to shake our hands so after a coffee and a brief look at the pretty lake, we headed off once again. The weather was a mix of heavy showers and sunshine, mainly rain at first but brighter in the afternoon.
Another coffee stop at Roca Massima to shelter from the rain, then on to an excellent lunch at Sperlunga, where the rain cleared and we stayed mostly dry until we arrived in Pompei.
The roads we have ridden so far have been somewhat disappointing with quite a lot of traffic and rain often obscuring the scenic stuff in the hills. There was also a very slow rider in my group who held us up a lot. I shall try to avoid him today!
I only brought my ipad on this trip so video may be a problem and given the weather only a couple of photos were taken on this leg. I will post them when I figure out how to do it!
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A good way to try out the new GS Chris. I was impressed following one north to Oxford when we disembarked at Portsmouth. Let's hope the rain lessens as you progress south. Wet here too but I'm heading to North Wales for the day, it even looks dryish there!
ReplyDeletePaul, definly better than a couple of hours ride from the dealers!
DeleteSo do you strap the iPad to your chest, or hold it in one hand? Should have taken your GoPro! Excellent impression of the lakeside road (and no traffic, yay!) so I hope you manage to find more routes like this. Here at home il pleut. I am even tempted to say "le temps, il fait de l'anglais" - nice summer weather all forgotten! Hope Southern Italy & Sicily are dry.
ReplyDeleteNo iPad on chest but yes, GoPro on head! The challenge is getting the clips off the GoPro onto my iPad, then edited a bit and uploaded over rather iffy wifi.
ReplyDeleteI'll do more with the film when I am back home and have a computer to work with. I should have brought my MacBook on this trip, it was a mistake to leave it behind. The iPad is good but not nearly as flexible as the laptop.
The view of the lake is really nice. It seems like such an interesting trip!
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