Slightly underwhelmed we left Milan for what I felt would be a good few days as I had a couple of activities planned along the way. First up was a stop en-route to the famous Moto Guzzi factory. From the exterior it looks as though this once winning motorcycle producer has long since gone and judging by the pictures of it in the museum it hasn’t changed a bit since before the second world war. Several other bikers turned up including an English group of four on their way to India. Hmmm. It turned out that the 3pm opening was only for access to their museum for an hour but nonetheless it certainly opened my eyes about their racing pedigree and history. The fact remains though that despite all this former glory and innovation nowadays they don’t sell many motorcycles at all. Does that mean I’m riding something that nobody wants or that I’m riding something a little bit special? I’ll be in a better position to answer that in a few weeks...So with many photos taken off we headed around the lake from south east to north west in search of our accommodation. When we finally climbed the hill far away from the other lodgings the road ran out with our guesthouse still 400m away!
Sensing problems I walked the 400m on foot along a progressively narrowing and steepening track until finally Crottone Guesthouse appeared perched on the side of the steep hill. It was the place that time forgot including the old lady that was the only person there. Think of the ‘Local Shop’ in ‘The League Of Gentlemen’ and you’d not be far off. Many negative thoughts ran through my mind including...Dinner? Parking the bike? Mirka? It really was way off the beaten track and had I been travelling alone (and aboard Des) then no problem but with Mirka after our previous stays..?A little surprisingly she seemed keen on a little adventure and so off I rode a still shiny and new Soul up the steep and narrow track trying desperately not to damage the bike by either scratch or total write off. With some sweat, time, effort and patience we made it and boy was it worth it! The view across the lake couldn’t have been bettered and looking down the couple of miles to the main road with its pizzerias and traffic it felt so great to be way up away from it all in a little isolation.
Also thankfully the old lady wasn’t the proprietor and when her son and daughter in law arrived they provided a lovely dinner with more than drop of wine.
A group of seven or so Americans turned up late which was nice for Mirka as I crawled into bed a little early after getting myself Brahms and Liszt on red. My granddad John’s that one, love it. A good day's little adventure at last!! :-)
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