Country: Italy

Capital: Rome

Area: 301,340 km²

Population: 5.96 crores

Language: Italian

Currency: Euro

Road Length: 4,87,700 km

Road Details: Italy has a road network of nearly 5 lakh km. The road network mostly consists of paved roads. Out of these, the Autostrade or Italian national system of motorways is nearly 7,000 km. For the most part, the traffic on the Autostrade road is light but major cities and their interior roads have a decent amount of traffic. 

Roadtrip: The Great Italian Roadtrip

Year: 2010

Distance: ~8,000 km

Route and Map:

Leg 1: Bologna > Venice > Cortina di Ampezzo > Stelvio > Airolo (Switzerland) > Bologna

Leg 2: Bologna >Florence > Matera > San Giovanni in Fiore > Nicolosi, Sicily > Morano > Rome > Volterra > Bologna 

Leg 3: Bologna > Chamonix (France) > Berne (Switzerland) > Halblech (Germany) > Innsbruck (Austria) > Grossglockner (Austria) > Bologna

Ride on: Right side

Metric System: Speed is in km/h and temperature in Degrees Celsius. Fuel or gasoline is measured in litres. 

Machines: 

Ducati Streetfighter S 1100: 1099cc | 155 bhp | 115 Nm

The Ducati Streetfighter 1100 S is a fantastic bike boasting incredible technology mated with a superbike motor and a naked styling that makes it the world’s more desirable street naked (at least in our dictionary). But be warned, a good rider is required to handle its raw power, even if it has 8 levels of traction control! We had people literally gaping at it, it is that delicious.

Ducati Monster 1100 S: 1078cc | 95 bhp | 75.90 Nm

The Ducati Monster 1100 S is the top-level air-cooled high capacity Monster that Ducati produces. It is a wonderful motorcycle and proved to be very comfortable on the whole roadtrip. The luggage was an issue on both street bikes but the good folks at ducatiTours.com (based near Pisa in Italy) helped us out with a Givi luggage set! The Monster feels incredibly light and handles like a dream and its styling is of course legendary.

Sponsors: 

Travelogue:  

“I stand here on the summit of the mountain. 

I lift my head and spread my arms. 

This, my body and spirit, this is the end of the quest. 

I wished to know the meaning of things. I am the meaning. 

I wished to find a warrant for being. 

I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. 

I am the warrant and the sanction.”

–Anthem (Ayn Rand) 

This statement is arrogant- maybe; objective- absolutely. This extract from an Ayn Rand creation aptly describes the heady feeling we experienced during a road trip of a lifetime in Italy. We needed no stimulants, no drugs, no motivational books, to go through a gruelling dream run lasting 24 days astride our Ducatis and covered nearly 8,000 km in three legs. 

The bikes, a Streetfighter 1100S and a Monster 1100S, we used were masterpieces crafted in great detail and with classical finesse by Ducati, and were our reliable partners during this epic run which we deservedly called “The Great Italian Road Trip”. These were machines ahead of their time and above all, machines of beauty and power rolled into one; blending unique styling and design only the Italians can muster. 

We, the Ducatisti, as Ducati riders are called, got up religiously each morning and mounted our Ducati’s to ride through the length and breadth of this beautiful country, discovering in wonder the unfathomable depths of beauty it has to offer, and captured what our soul experienced and the eyes saw into our cameras. Being the incorrigible Indians, at each step, we compared it with our own country; and why not?

Leg 1: Bologna > Venice > Cortina di Ampezzo > Stelvio > Airolo (Switzerland) > Bologna

Names of both countries start with the empowering alphabet “i”, embellishing the sense of the nation with the sense of belonging of oneself. Both were the cradles of blossoming ancient civilizations, the songs still echo in the valleys and the breath of which is still entwined in the breeze. One, a peninsula in the east and the other, a peninsula in the west, lending their qualities of water- fluid, refreshing and welcoming, to their peoples. And we discovered on our roadtrip that the similarities did not end there…

While similarities exist, what was striking was that the dreamland of Italy offers an unparalleled, exciting and diverse landscape of natural beauty, with architecture, art and history peppered all over, preserved and to be savoured, absorbed and admired. One just can’t have enough of it and one lifetime is not enough to cover the depths that this land has to offer.

It indeed is true that no landscape more exquisite can be found on earth than some portions of Italy, no city in the world can fill the peculiar place of Rome, Florence or Venice; and nothing; nothing can surpass the subtle witchery of Capri and Sicily and some of the half-forgotten towns dotted all over the country ruined but still preserved for us and our future generations. From the foothills of Mont Blanc – Europe’s highest mountain to the beautiful and almost divine coast of Amalfi, and weaving around the monuments in Florence, Rome, and Venice all the way to the southernmost tip of Sicily along the Alps and the Apennine mountain ranges, two Indian riders from xBhp went on a road trip of a lifetime joining the streams of travellers from all over the world to have made their pilgrimage over the centuries to this fabled land.

To ride around in an alien country for a prolonged period has its own demands on the riders and the logistics involved can be mindboggling. Not only are the bare necessities to be carried along but also to fulfil our role as photojournalists, a lot of camera gear and electronics also need to be accommodated. While we struggled initially, it took us almost three attempts over the three legs we completed the trip in to get it right. In addition, language was always an issue and so were the signage and the lurking unknown restrictions that we may have not been aware of. On the roads, the Italians are quite similar to Indians, while not as vicious with aggression as seen on our roads, still, with some propensity to stretch the rules in comparison to other developed nations that we have ridden in.

During this trip, one rider was to use his lens to capture the finest of nuances the place had to offer and of course to bring out the flavours of a scene akin to the finest Italian wines, and the other had to assist him while documenting the trip in as much detail as possible. Videography was also an important factor and so, we definitely had our hands full. 

Filled with apprehensive energy we boarded our Air France flight and landed up in Bologna which was to be our home base for the duration of the trip. We arrived on the morning of the 28th of July and headed straight to the Ducati factory. We had taken off from a hot and humid Delhi and landed straight into an equally hot and humid Bologna. Nevertheless, for a change, everything went like clockwork on the airline and immigration fronts, and we were on time. For once, even the French seemed to be quite efficient.

At the factory, we were introduced to what would have been our riding partners for the next 24 days. We had the same heady feeling that one gets when being introduced to his first date and boy-o-boy they were breathtaking. An aggressive Ducati Red Streetfighter and a White Cool Dude Monster stood before us invitingly. 

We did not realize that they traced their lineage to thoroughbred racehorses that would require us to prove our riding skills before they allowed us to be friends with them till we actually got to mount them and ride. It took some time for us to get used to each other but then it was a breeze – soon, man and machine became one.

Determined to impress our steeds and rearing to go, we stuffed them up with everything we could in the soft panniers and one hardshell case, the rest went into a backpack and we mounted the bikes. The first leg of the Great Italian Roadtrip had kicked off with a 150 kilometre run from Bologna to Venice – the city of canals. During this run, we became friends with the steeds and landed up in our designated hotel on the outskirts of Venice.

To reach the city, which is a series of connecting Islands, one has to ride through a long bridge over the sea. The entire city is built around interlinking canals that finally meet with the ocean. Vehicles are not allowed in the city and the only way to move around is to walk or go by gondola or boat which we call water taxis- the gondolas were quite expensive and we suspected that gondoliers’ pricing policy was – take away as much as you can. The next day was spent in this wonderful city photographing it from every angle possible, walking around all the way to Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) and back. 

Venice is famous for its canals, masks, monuments, gondolas, crystal and the legendary Casanova. The St. Marks Cathedral with its imposing watchtower and the sheer number of ancient buildings all around leaves one breathless. We made an enormous effort to take as many high-quality pictures as we could since even an amateur photographer with an ordinary point and shoot camera can take picture-postcard quality shots here!

The following day, we headed for the Alps. The crown of Italy is the Alps in the exact same way as our Himalayas crown India. This mountain range runs from France in the west to Slovenia in the East and cuts across Germany, Switzerland and Austria to name a few. The Alps figured big time in our planning and we wanted to cover as many mountain passes as possible.

For us, our initiation into Alpine riding took place in Fiora di Primiero which we hit on day 4 of our trip but our baptism took place on the ascent to Passo Stelvio or simply Stelvio Pass. Our route took us via Bossano del Grappa, Mount Grappa, Agrodo etc.. The Alps revealed themselves in their full majesty and there were some beautiful mountain peaks that we captured. There was so much to shoot that we kept stopping briefly along the way to take pictures.

We passed one village after another, each one beautiful- the kind any kindergarten child would happily draw out for his/her parents- exactly as we used to imagine a village to look like when we were children. Villages in Europe are unlike what we have back home. While ours are neglected and mostly left to their own devices, these are clean, very well developed and offered a very high quality of life.

We reached Stelvio via Cortina di Ampezzo. Cortina is home to Bvlgari, Gucci etc. and has been a winter Olympic host in 1956. The route took us via the Dolomites and curvy mountain roads that are any biker’s delight. There were a total of 42 hairpins on the road to Stelvio which is at an altitude of 2760 meters and we enjoyed each and every one of them. The Alps also gave us some respite from the searing heat and humidity of the plains. Here, we had our first tryst with a glacier. The peak reminded us of a street in Ladakh with small shops selling wares and even a hotel called Tibet just beside it.

During the entire trip, we encountered scores of motorcyclists on tour from all over Europe on superbikes and cruisers of all hues. There were Ducati’s, Yamaha’s, MotoGuzzi’s, Honda’s, KTM’s and whatnot. In fact, the route is especially suited for bikers and they come in droves as soon as the passes open. Businesses all along the route have innovative signage welcoming them. Groups of bikers would fly a small flag of their country and we proudly noted the Indian tricolour on our bikes and helmets. We had also carried our national flag with us to be used in deserving photo-ops.

Our two-man juggernaut moved on and we rode from Stelvio via the Lombardy region of Italy towards the Swiss Alps. After a brief stop at the friendly Swiss customs, we moved on and finally settled down in the small Swiss town of Airolo at about 8 PM. As we entered this country, the beauty of the landscape struck us. The cleanliness was awesome and it was as if, when the Swiss sleep, someone gets busy with a giant machine cleaning the whole country up, not just the roads and the pavements and the houses etc. but also the mountains, the trees, the leaves and the rivers and the snow!

In Bologna, we stayed for a day to visit the city and then set off for Florence, the capital of the sunny Tuscany region of Italy. The highway from Bologna to Florence is one of the busiest and the Autostrada was full of mad truck drivers all along the 150 km of this short journey. However, no one can beat an Indian with the experience of negotiating the Indian highways where he is constantly challenged by a TATA truck! 

Leg 2: Bologna > Florence > Matera > San Giovanni in Fiore > Nicolosi, Sicily > Morano > Rome > Volterra > Bologna 

Having budgeted 2 days for Florence (Firenze in Italian), we visited the Piazza Michelangelo where a statue of Michelangelo lords over a fantastic view of the city and then took a photo walk around the city. The next morning, we visited the magnificent Medici Cathedral and got bowled over by it. This Cathedral, also called the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore was built in 1296 and It took the folks 170 years to complete it. It took them 150 years alone to figure out a way to build the dome, which is the largest octagonal dome ever built!

Day 10 of the trip took us from Florence on a 325 km ride further south. Riding out of the city and passing through the by now customarily beautiful Italian villages, we had done some 40 odd kilometres when we hit the mountains again in the Apennine mountain range. The Apennines are a long system of mountains and hills that run down the Italian peninsula from the Cadibona Pass to the tip of Calabria and continue on the island of Sicily.

Our jaws dropped as we were transported to 3rd century BC. We saw an entire system of cave houses and cave dwellings and people actually still lived in them. There was the world’s first church (as claimed by our guide) buried deep into a cave, a church of the Templar Knights, the place from where the first crusades were launched, all packaged into a compact landscape. There were public stairs and streets above the roofs of other houses, the whole scene was totally surreal. 

Those who have seen the movie Kind David by Richard Gere in the ’80s or more recently Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ will probably be able to imagine what I am talking about… Both of these notable movies were filmed almost 100% at this location and all the scenes depicting Jerusalem, Bethlehem, crucification etc. were shot here. You have to go to Matera to imagine what a transformation in era one goes through when one sees a place like this. 

It was now Day 14 into our trip and we moved on via an un-remarkable San Giovanni in Flore to all-important Sicily to mark the psychological halfway mark in our road trip. The Autostrada on the west coast to Sicily is a work in progress and we remained stuck in a single file for many kilometres at times. At one point, we almost ran out of Benzina (which is what petrol is called in Italy; if one asks for gas, they end up getting diesel) and had to ride for many agonizing kilometres till we hit a refuelling halt. 

This ride took us along the Adriatic Coast of Italy and then cut across the landmass to the Mediterranean coast in the west. Both the coasts were equally beautiful and the sea was as clean, as blue and as sea-green as it could be. The water simply stretched into the horizon following the curvature of the earth and the sights were simply majestic. 

The ferry ride from San Giovanni, which is the gateway to Sicily, to Messina, took about 30 minutes and as soon as we reached the island of Sicily, we mounted our bikes and rode on towards Mount Etna via Catania. Mount Etna is an active volcano and we got some photos of it 

The next destination on our return leg was the all-important Rome. In our view, no trip to Italy can be fulfilling unless one spends time visiting this city. We covered 440 km from Morano to Rome in a jiffy by sticking to the Autostrada as much as possible, sometimes covering 200+ km at a stretch before a mandatory Benzina halt. 

The next day, we took a guided tour of Ancient Rome. To reach our tour bus, we had to ride through horrendous Roman traffic, which reminded us of the mess on Delhi streets. 

The highlight in Rome for us was the Colosseum and actually walking these hallowed hallways. We needn’t mention that the Colosseum was the Roman circus where the gladiators used to fight for the pleasure of Caesar and where 1,00,000 strong, bloodthirsty crowd used to enjoy seeing men kill men, men kill animals, and animals kill men, in the most innovative ways.

That plus the fact that we actually saw the first Lamborghini (and the only one in the whole roadtrip) parked right in front of the Colosseum. We, of course, obliged and parked the Streetfighter to shoot two of the best that Italian machinery has to offer. 

Another fun bit was the Treasure Hunt. We stopped in the beautiful hill village of Volterra in Italy. That was when the hotel manager told us about an ongoing ‘open-air exhibition’ of massive stone art sculptures spread over the village and its surroundings, by an artist by the name of Mauro Staccioli. 

The brochure of the exhibit called ‘Luoghi d’Esperienza (The Places of Experience) provided us with a map and sent us, two Ducatisitis, on a treasure hunt to find these points in which art meets nature. In the end, we spent about 4 hours to find four of these installations, out of the 8-odd. And it was a lot of fun. 

Leg 3: Bologna > Chamonix (France) > Berne (Switzerland) > Halblech (Germany) > Innsbruck (Austria) > Grossglockner (Austria) > Bologna

As soon as we settled in our hotel, in Bologna, we set in motion a new plan to cover the Alps more extensively and the next morning, we set off on a fast-paced 510 km ride from Bologna via Milan, Turino to Courmayeur, which is the base of the Alps just before Mont Blanc. 

We passed through the numerous tunnels that were by now a routine for us in Italy to reach the base of Mont Blanc. Here we crossed the 11.6 km tunnel cutting across this majestic mountain and ended up on the French side of the Alps which led us to Chamonix. Moving on, a spectacular glacier on the peak was clearly visible but we headed for our eventual destination on Martigny in Switzerland, some 65 km away. 

As we descended into Martigny, still some 10 km away, just before twilight, a scene out of heaven appeared before us. In our living memory, we will never forget this spectacle of nature. In front of us, as we looked down into the valley from the mountain, we saw the town of Martigny, drenched with isolated rays of sunlight, beautiful mountains glowing all around it as if God had set up a special effect spotlight above it with a sky so blue that the eyes refused to believe it. 

The next morning, we had the longest single ride of the trip planned. We had to ride in excess of 600 km in a single day to be on time for our appointment with the legendary Chris Pfeifer in Halblech, his hometown. Chris had visited India earlier for a spectacular performance that we had covered as journalists. 

We got up early and headed towards Germany, the route taking us via Interlaken along the majestic lakes and Bern, the capital of Switzerland where we had a coffee break overlooking the Swiss Parliament in a cafe across the courtyard. 

Soon, Austria gave way to Germany and we found ourselves on the Autobahn which is a no-speed-limit German highway and looked very inviting. We opened the throttle and covered the next 80-90 km in a jiffy. 

At Halblech, we found a small Bed & Breakfast and retired for the night. The next day was the rendezvous with Chris and we were all excited about it. We got up early and reached his house just 800m away, where he was waiting for us. The next 2-3 hours were spent with him interviewing, photographing, and discussing all things biking and stunting. 

Post that. it was time to bid him adieu and we started towards Innsbruck, which was a beautiful Austrian city some 160 km away. We walked around town and then set off for Grossglockner Pass which at 3,798m, is not only the highest mountain in Austria but also counts among the highest peaks in the Alps. 

At night, we stayed at a mountain hotel located at 2,500m and the next morning, got up extremely refreshed. This was our last day of the roadtrip and we had to cover approximately 450 km to get back to Bologna. We got up at 5 AM and checked out in just half an hour. The route from the Grossglockner took us via many beautiful Austrian villages and into the Italian plains. 

Shortly after, we bid an emotional goodbye to our bikes at the Ducati factory. They had served us well. There was not a single incident in the entire duration of the trip and the bikes behaved exquisitely. We were in love and promised to be reunited with them once again- soon. 

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