Modern Vespa

Ciao Mauro, can I be the one to ask you for a favor instead?

If someone wanted to send a motorcycle and store it near Ancona for 11 months out of the year. What is the monthly cost of a storage unit big enough to fit a bike?

mayorofrightnow - great thread. I am looking to ship my BMW 650GS to Italy to tour across the country so your thought process and experiences shared here are helpful, thanks!

For me, though I have citizenship and a house in Italy (though not a resident) from my understanding I could purchase a car (though I'm not sure about a motorcycle). In my case though, I think shipping the bike and having it stay there is my best case scenario as I will be returning to Italy once a year or so. I like that I can ride my own bike customized and maintained by me and setup to my own preferences. Also 130 liters of Givi luggage should be enough for the missus and I two upping lol

... a house where ..?

Glad it's helpful!

I suspect with a local address and passport, you could buy a moto here. I inspired an Italian friend to buy a used motorcycle. I know he used an agent, because the DMV-equivalent seems to be intentionally obtuse to nudge you to use one. Perhaps you could contact one near your Italian address and see what they'd need from you to register a local moto in your name.

FWIW, I believe foreign plates are only legal for a year, and getting local plates for a non-Italian vehicle, even from another European state seems to be a big (potentially expensive) undertaking.

I picked up the Beverly yesterday. As I recall, it's a cheaper model than a GTS, but apparently it has more modern bells and whistles: LCD dash with fuel range and tachometer, Bluetooth (if I can figure out how to pair the phone), keyless ignition, hazard lights. The fuel tank is between your feet, so the underseat bucket is massive. I can fit my full face helmet in there (which is doubly nice, since it's the only scooter I've seen without some place to hook the helmet strap). There's also a piston to lock the back wheel (much like the D-locks common on Dutch bicycles); however, I keep forgetting to set it, because the keyless ignition means I don't see the key when I park.

(If anyone has a manual for the 2021 BV/Beverly Euro 5, I'm curious to know how to set up the Bluetooth and how to set the clock.)

I got the November discount: 420EUR for 3 weeks with unlimited miles. That's 55% less than I paid for the Vespa in Verona in August, plus it includes insurance with a $500 deductible. I might end up using some of the deductible though: The luggage rack is plastic with a painted grab rail. Just having the bag strapped to it for a short journey to/from the ferry already stripped some of the paint. I wrapped the rack in a fabric bag before I strapped my Torke on, but it still dinged up the plastic too. It also has no crash bars, so if it gets knocked into, it's gonna show.

Yesterday was almost entirely logistics: I rented the motorcycle, ate, looked into Airbnbs, booked passage on the boat, ran a quick errand, and went to the dock.

Turns out the boat to Sardegna didn't run until Friday, and sitting around Napoli in the rain for two days didn't seem fun, so I made like a college improv troupe and declared NEW CHOICE. I landed in Sicily at sunrise.

There are two nightly ferries between Napoli and Palermo. GNV runs a 35 year old boat with GNV. Tirrenia's is 20 years old. I paid the extra 20EUR to try my luck with the slightly newer boat.

The boat left at 8:15, but they tell you to be there at least 90 minutes before. I didn't want to stress about it, so I left even earlier. I was glad I did: I had to do a lap around the port labyrinth to find the boat. They told me to go to the ticket counter to check in: lap 2. Ticket counter tells me to go to a random parking lot to get my documents checked: lap 3. Document guy tells me to take a dead end road. I think maybe cars were staging there until departure, but I knew where the boat was, so I rode back that way. The cops who told me to go check in now tell me to pull to the side, while an hour's worth of semis board.

As I'm parking, someone on a brand new Multistrada parks next to me. The same cops that sent me on the check-in goose chase check him in on the spot.

I walk over to the other rider: Ciao! Parli inglese?

Si.

He saw me on a scooter and was shocked that I'm a traveller. He presumed I was a commuter. (He was also surprised I was "properly dressed" to ride a moto, as many of the scooter riders here don't even bother latching their helmets, if they are wearing one at all.) I think we were the only two riders on that ferry. We split a bottle of wine on the boat, and got lunch together today. He gave me a bunch of tips for his favorite places in Sicily. (He also validated my choice in boat. Apparently GNV used to have the nicest boat, but they make more money renting it out as a COVID hospital, so now they use a shitty boat for the ferry.)

I'm feeling really good about this leg of the trip. Waking up in a new location with a new moto and a 3 week countdown to return it makes me feel like I'm starting a whole new adventure! Hopefully it will shake off some of the exhausted I was feeling before.

I did a quick sketch this morning: I can ride down to the south side of Sicily on Sunday and then east towards Etna and the mainland. From there, I think I can ride up through Calabria to Matera, daytrip into Puglia, and then head back to Maratea up the Amalfi Coast to Pompeii et. al. before I run out of time. I need to do another pass counting how many days I'd want to be in each place to see how feasible that is. There's a good chance that Puglia and Matera have to be cut out, but I've heard so many nice things about Puglia this trip, it would be really nice to catch a glimpse of it. Then again, it's also nice to have somewhere new to go if someone ever wants to come to Italy with me.

One of the perks of having arrived by ferry is I can always depart by ferry. If riding through Calabria adds too many days, I can spend 2 weeks wandering Sicily and then take the boat towards Amalfi. Even just typing that sounds more sane, as thirsty as I am to see a bunch of new places.

Riding in the Two Sicilies (which included Napoli before they were both merged into Italy) is a sport, and I enjoy it. The roads vaguely resemble the ones you might see in California, but the traffic moves like grains in an hourglass: if there's a free space, someone will shoot through to take it, and traffic adjusts to accommodate. "Lanes" are taken so loosely that they don't even bother repainting them. Riding in urban California has prepared me for riding in the north of Italy, which has prepared me for riding here, which has hopefully prepared me for riding in Vietnam someday. I'm really glad that the Beverly has the same guts as the Vespa: it gives me the confidence to use power when I need it, and to know how fast it will come on.

I'm curious to see what the Beverly will be like to tour on. There are a few inches of support in the seat, but they lock you into one position. Even just sprinting through traffic, I could feel the seat pushing me farther forward than I wanted to be. IIRC, my PBH is 77cm; I often wear 32in pants. I can flat-foot the Beverly, but it's definitely taller and heavier than the GTS. I don't know why there's so little legroom on a scooter that's so tall. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I hope the added support compensates for the inability to change positions on long riding days.

I understand that you are satisfied with your tour, how do you find the way Italians drive?

Vicino a Siderno, RC. But I don't care where it stays while I'm gone. Most international flights go to Rome or somewhere in the north.

Was it 1€?

Calabria is a nice place to live, southern Italy is generally not considered a place to spend the rest of your life but it has its attractions ... Good weather, good food, the sunniest people and the sweetest women.
I am in Latina but it is already southern Italy, I feel more in harmony if I declare myself southern.

They seem to often be more communal than drivers in the US. I appreciate that Italians make space for one another on the road. There's a very loose interpretation of the rules, but it works because everyone's looking out for one another (aside from the occasional stronzo who honks at everybody).

At the same time, there's much more inattention here than I'm used to. In California, if you see someone with a cellphone out, others will make that person feel embarrassed. Here, plenty of people are looking at their phones while driving. (I've also seen touchscreen phones wedged in moto helmets, and I'm not entirely sure how that even works.)

I definitely felt a car tire encroaching my boot yesterday when the light turned green. If I'd accelerated any slower, that might have been a very bad day.

Speed limits in Italy are much slower than in the US. (Italians sometimes ignore the limits, but in traffic they have no choice.) I suspect that part of the reason the casual road culture works so well is that things are moving more slowly.

These are very acute observations, excellent.

Two things I forgot to add on Italian driving:

Napoli has many neighborhood streets that feel like pedestrian streets, but cars and motorcycles take them too. It's frustrating to be a pedestrian on those streets, because impatient drivers keep creeping up behind you and urging you to yield, and those drivers often pass way too closely.

Turn signals are amusing in southern Italy. There aren't really lanes to speak of, so they don't always have a clear purpose. Still, a sizable fraction of people (both on motos and in cars) leave them on indefinitely. A useless blinker is as iconic of Sicily as the unstrapped open-face helmet, with a phone wedged into the ear cup and a cigarette dangling from the lips.

Naples is a separate case also for the rest of the Italians, ask Bob C. who lived there ...

Now I know why I ride like this. It's in my blood lol.

Land was free, he paid construction only. The municipality was going to tear down my great grandfather's house (it was at risk of crumbling). My father essentially took that off their hands and rebuilt it, so they gave him the land for free and he had plans drawn up that essentially mimicked the old house design/shape, with some modern amenities. He paid architect, materials, labor.

Had my first daytrip on the Beverly today: rode up to Erice and back (Google estimates 130 miles).

I'm a little shocked they advertise the Beverly as a "tourer" in the US. The seat is a crime against humanity. It's a bit cramped for regular riding, but it's awful on the freeway. If you ride with a sporty posture (crouching forward), your tailbone presses against the back of the butt cup, and transfers a bunch of stress into your back. (I haven't toured in a couple weeks and my gym routine has been intermittent - most of the fitness work I've done this trip has been relegated to the occasional hotel that has a gym. I'm sure neither of those helped.) Your feet are already as far forward as they can go, so there aren't really alternate positions. I sat up on the pillion portion for a bit, trying to keep the circulation going in my legs. It was actually a nice height. Most of the first freeway jaunt, I was distracted by the seat: thinking about how I might be able to mod it, replace it, or compensate with some sort of cushion to plug the butt cup.

The GTS isn't exactly made to eat up the miles, but at least you can move forward/back along the seat and rotate your feet about the floorboards. The Vespa I rented for the first 40 days cost 2.25x as much as this Beverly, and I was seriously wondering if it was worth that premium to not have the Beverly's seat.

There was a bit of range anxiety, because there was a number on the dash that I had presumed was the remaining distance, but the fuel gauge depleted more quickly than the range. At about 60km of range, the number disappeared and was replaced by a flashing fuel icon. I probably could have made it back to Palermo, but it wasn't worth chancing it. The tank took 9L/16€ and said it had 360KM remaining when full.

The Beverly and the GTS have the same engine, but obviously the different tire diameters affect power transfer. Like the stock GTS, the Beverly's speedometer is more optimistic than the meter in Google Maps. There's no speed limiter in the Beverly, but I had a hard time getting above 125 KPH on the speedometer, and an even harder time sustaining those speeds.

The rental included a handlebar phone mount, but it doesn't have an integrated charger. Thankfully, I have a long charging cable in my bag. I think it's a 6' cable that comes with the Stadia controller. There's a USB port in the back of the glovebox. The door has a gasket on the top 3 sides, but there's room near the hinge to run the cable out to the footwell. I noticed the cable was catching on my knee on the freeway, so I routed it through the bag hook. That resolved the issue.

One more observation about Italian roads: a significant minority of people here don't bother with headlights (on both motos and cars). It's not many, but coming from the US, seeing any darkwads on the road is shocking (especially since most of our vehicles have headlights that come on with the ignition).

First real day of touring is tomorrow. I'm probably going to get rained on, and that's probably going to keep happening in the coming weeks. Hopefully it won't be miserable, and it won't be bad enough to spoil the beautiful vistas I have ahead of me.

Whoa - that's rad!

I figured out how to set the clock:

Hold down SET for many seconds. The hour will start flashing. Repeatedly tap (or hold) the SET button to the correct hour. Tap twice in succession to change to minutes, and twice again to confirm the time.

The button's not high quality, so tapping twice is fickle. Probably took me 3-4 minutes of button pressing (and a few times around the clock) to finally get it.

It's called the "restructuring incentive".

mayorofnow...
If you are interested in it and you can rent it, you can try an X Max 300.

Google told me to plan for three hours of riding today, with an hour to lunch, an hour to the coast, and an hour farther to Agrigento - all with a chance of rain.

I threw on my rain layers before leaving Palermo. The ride to Alcamo skirted along a lovely canyon. The sky was dark when I arrived, but thankfully it had only just started to drizzle when I got to lunch, and was mostly dry when I left.

The ride south to Sciacca was quite scenic, rambling through the green valleys of a volcanic isle on roads that were mostly empty. Sciacca is a seaside town that seemed like a good place for a break halfway between lunch and my Airbnb. However, the town was even more empty than the backroads I took to get there. The only thing open in the city center was a single bar. Neither the remaining pastries nor the gelato looked appealing, and the ornery baristo certainly didn't entice me to stay any longer. It had been more than an hour since lunch and I know rides can turn to drudgery at that point, but the overcast and desolate village wasn't the break point I'd expected. I took a walk around the block and a quick stretch, decided daylight was more useful than idling, and carried on my merry way.

10 minutes later, I won a new high score for "worst weather ever ridden through." Crocodile tears were bouncing off the roadway. I pulled off under the next overpass, stashed the USB cable back in the glovebox and my phone in my pocket, and checked the map. Sciacca was both the biggest and the most direct town on the route. There was basically nothing for the next hour. I looked at my feet, and thought "is it going to flash flood?!" Water rushed down both sides of the road, and waterfalls were forming at the corners of the overpass.

I have two pairs of glasses that I ride with: one tinted and one clear. I happened to be wearing the clear pair when I took a detour to a sauna in the mountains in August. There was no place to put them outside, so I brought them in with me. The heat ruined the anti-reflective coating - now they have the same tessellating effect as those novelty glasses people pass around at parties that make all lights look like hearts.

Given that my eyeglasses are now blurry and light-sensitive, I prefer my sunglasses whenever possible. Even on overcast days, I don't switch to the clear lenses until it's actually dark outside.

So now I'm hiding on the side of a highway in a borderline flood. There's an hour in front of me, nowhere to turn back to, and visibility will be even worse if I wait until sundown and dig out my eyeglasses. (Lightning and tail lights were already doing more to illuminate the road than whatever solar photons were squeezing through the storm). I decided the best course of action was to press on.

Almost immediately, water breached the zipper on my usually-waterproof GoreTex shell and soaked through my moto jacket. I could feel the cold wet seeping into my shirt and pants. For the second time this trip, my Stormhawk boots did not live up to their name. Since I was riding this time, I tried to keep my feet tucked behind the legshield as much as I could. As I draft this, I'm wearing noise cancelling headphones to drown out the sound of the hotel hair dryer I've jerryrigged to dry them.

As I've previously alluded to, Italians pass whenever they want. Your choices are: pass, hug the shoulder and be passed, or bathe in the headlights of the asshole tailgating you. Being outside oncoming traffic's splash zone also seemed wise, so I deviated from my typical lane position and started shifting towards the right. As I did, a car behind me jumped at the opportunity to pass. His headlights illuminated a broken branch in the right half of the lane. Luckily, it was still to the right of my line. Otherwise, that could have been really bad: it's pouring rain, I can barely see the road, and someone has just cut off any opportunity I'd have to swerve left. I've never been a theist, but the phrase "but for the grace of god" rang true in that moment.

The LCD reads ASR OFF, no matter how I press the ASR button. I'm not sure if that means it's disabled or that I'm not actively losing traction. I have no idea how much water was on the road, but I was well into the oncoming lane when I passed a thicket of traffic, and I got sprayed by the wheels of people I passed. Then I got sprayed again by oncoming traffic when I merged back into my lane.

I still don't have the hang of brights on the Beverly. The switches for the brights and the blinkers feel too similar. It's too easy to grab the wrong one.

The rain broke up about ten minutes before I arrived in Agrigento. I called my host, he walked me upstairs, and I took all my wet gear off. As I started downstairs to grab my bag off the moto, I heard thunder. I stepped out into the patio and saw the storm had followed me here. With rain that hard, I had to put all my wet rain layers back on to avoid being totally soaked while I unstrapped the bag. Thankfully, there's a pizzeria at the end of the block. Definitely not the best pizza, but I'm glad I didn't have to go far in that storm.

I've been keeping an eye on the precip map in Dark Sky. Today looks like the worst of the next few days. Hopefully Calabria, Basilicata, and Puglia have dried out by the time I get there.

I ride with a Cardo, which I usually use for both music and navigation. Unfortunately, the gasket on the USB port sucks. I tried to make sure it was sealed before starting my ride today, but it's still acting like water got inside. I think I'll need to buy some physical cables tomorrow to connect my helmet speakers to my phone while it dries out, but I'm not sure how to juggle music and charging on a single USB port.

Thanks for the tip, but this is booked until I leave, and I don't intend to return to Napoli until then.

Excellent update!

This sounds like the weather that oopsclunkthud and I had in Italy in 2010 — the kind of storm that stalks you from town to town. You have my sympathy, but also my envy. Adventure is, after all, tales of discomfort told at leisure.

Funny how the pain eventually subsides and the tales get more entertaining....

https://www.rainews.it/dl/rainews/articoli/catania-nubifragio-maltempo-strade-come-torrenti-muore-giovane-travolta-acqua-b978c37c-9bd3-430d-9f4a-4a3d972f0847.html

"Streets like streams, Piazza Duomo Maltempo flooded. Strong storm in the Catania area. A man dies overwhelmed by water Dozens of requests for intervention from families who have remained isolated and numerous motorists rescued by the regional civil protection. The Simeto river overflows. Schools closed in Catania and Messina.

October 26, 2021
The storm that struck Catania for hours transformed the streets of the city, and in particular the central Via Etnea, into a river in flood, and Piazza Duomo into a lake. Flooded the historic market of the 'Pescheria' and the fountain was also invaded from where the underground river Amenano emerges for a while. In Gravina di Catania a man drowned. The body was found by Mercy volunteers under the car. Attempts at cardiopulmonary resuscitation were useless. According to an initial reconstruction, it seems that the victim, originally from Pedara but resident in Catania, got out of a car, perhaps after a road accident, in via Etnea. She then she would be overwhelmed by the water. Firefighters, carabinieri, municipal police and 118 personnel also intervened on the spot. This is the second victim in these days of bad weather in the province of Catania: yesterday the firefighters found the body of a man who disappeared in Scordia, while The search for his 65-year-old wife, dispersed in the Ogliastro district, is still ongoing.

Meanwhile, the Simeto river overflowed again, swollen by the violent wave of bad weather and rain. Anas staff closed the state road 192 "Della Valle del Dittaino" to traffic near km 81, in Catania, due to the overflow of the watercourse, which flooded the roadway. In the direction of Syracuse, traffic has slowed down considerably. Anas has sent maintenance teams to work to restore traffic as soon as possible. Families and motorists were rescued by the regional civil protection and voluntary associations. In Misterbianco, four families were evacuated due to the landslide of mud and debris from Monte Cardillo. The only connecting road has been cleared, but as a precaution the inhabitants have left their homes, while the area is constantly monitored by civil protection volunteers. The areas most affected are those south of the Etna capital. Floods are recorded in the village of Santa Maria Goretti, adjacent to the airport, in the industrial area and in the seaside areas of Plaia and Vaccarizzo. So far the Catania firefighters have carried out 214 interventions. Airport terminal closed The storm that hit Catania also created some problems at the Fontanarossa airport. Some flights only experienced departure delays. "Due to persistent and adverse weather conditions - the press office of the airport communicates - the closure of Terminal C scheduled for November 1st, is brought forward to today with immediate effect; therefore all flight operations will be carried out at Terminal A". University, distance learning until Saturday Following the red code weather alert regarding the city of Catania and its metropolitan area, all educational activities (lessons, exams, degrees) of the University of Catania study courses planned for the current week (from Tuesday 26 to Saturday 30 October 2021) - including those in the decentralized offices of Ragusa and Syracuse - will be held exclusively in remote mode via the MS Teams platform. This was announced by the University itself, underlining that the structures will remain open for all other activities. Court of Catania, suspended hearings in presence Hearings in presence suspended today and tomorrow at the Court of Catania due to bad weather. The decision was adopted by the President of the Court Francesco Mannino and his colleagues. The bar association had asked for a suspension until Saturday. In the former Magistrate's Court in via Crispi there were infiltrations from the 'garden' with a terrace and the water "rained" in some rooms. Schools closed in Messina and Catania Schools closed until Friday in Messina due to the bad weather that hit Sicily. This was established by the mayor of Messina, Cateno De Luca, who communicated his decision in a direct Facebook. Although the red alert is not foreseen for tomorrow, the mayor has ordered, with an ordinance, the closure of the schools. "I asked the Prefecture to convene a technical table to verify what measures the motorway Consortium has taken to reopen the A18 Messina-Catania, there is a" mess "to come from the Ionian area to Messina - Facebook said live - So even if the weather conditions improve, we will close the schools in the next 3 days, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We will need these to check the conditions of the Messina institutes in light of the critical issues related to bad weather ". In light of the new serious meteorological event and the civil protection bulletin which determines a scenario with previously unquantifiable effects with sufficient accuracy, the mayor of Catania Salvo Pogliese, in agreement with the Prefect, has decreed the suspension of activities for tomorrow 27 October didactic "as a suitable measure to guarantee the vehicular flow of the city streets and also allow non-teaching staff to guarantee the access of any staff in charge of the maintenance of school buildings for appropriate checks". "In fact, several complexes have been damaged due to the violent wave of bad weather that hit the city of Catania and careful checks are necessary to ensure safe access for pupils", reads the note from the Municipality. The appeal of the mayor of Catania: "Do not leave home" Shops closed in Catania due to bad weather. Mayor Salvo Pogliese ordered it with a special order. "Following the worsening of the weather conditions and the repeated calls to citizens not to move from home due to the condition of emergency depending on the risk to which the population is exposed - reads a note from the Municipality."

Funny you put it that way.

I haven't heard that definition of adventure, but it's an appealing one.

I spent yesterday sightseeing in Agrigento. The rain took out my Cardo and somehow also my USB charging cable in the glovebox, so I was trying to navigate from street signs alone. Signs between cities are good, but the signs around the Scala dei Turchi could use some attention. That was actually disappointing: it's a big rock on the beach, but you aren't allowed to hike on it. It was a cool rock on a nice beach (with beachy weather, that I was not prepared for), but I'm surprised it's a regional attraction. I'm sure my recent trip to the Dolomites contributes to my lack of astonishment, but I didn't think it was worth the detour.

I got to Valle dei Templi in the mid afternoon. It's a series of ancient Greek ruins spread over a couple miles. It looked like the skies were getting dark in the distance, but Dark Sky kept assuring me Agrigento would be clear. Then, as I entered the deepest recess of the park, Google gave me a notification: rain expected in an hour. I hightailed it back to the Beverly and sprinted east.

The last time my Cardo died on tour, I hardwired my phone to the helmet speakers with a USB C adaptor and an audio extension cord. Of course, I forgot to pack both those things, so I started my 2.5 hour ride hustling into the abyss at the sun was setting - silent in theory, but even with earplugs in, the wind is surprisingly loud without the music to mask it. Yet another reminder that I need a better helmet, but not actionable in the moment. Thankfully, I found a Unieuro in Gela that had the cables I need to have some music for the rest of the ride.

In my experience so far, numbered highways in Italy are like US routes: often undivided; but high speed, well maintained roads between cities. Google beckoned me to turn towards the sea at Gela onto another numbered highway. It wanted me to know it was 4 minutes faster. Even in the dark, being by the sea was a romantic idea.

There was a bit of a town at the turn off, but as I emerged into the wilderness, I was a bit shocked: this Strada Provinciale was more like a farm road than a highway. I passed a tractor and saw an oncoming car every few minutes, but I was basically alone in the outskirts of the outskirts. There was enough wet mud on the road to keep my speed in check and my wits about me. I remember giggling to myself that Google thought this detour was worth saving 4 minutes, but with an hour still ahead of me, turning back was really unappetizing. I bode myself good fortune and carried on.

20 minutes later, I encountered a puddle that spanned from shoulder to shoulder. I crossed my proverbial fingers and crept across the edge. Luckily, it wasn't deep enough to cause a problem. Eventually, I entered another town, where Google directed me inland towards a better maintained road.

I had put my rain layers on in Gela to protect against the cold of the night. That proved prescient as a strong drizzle caught up with me. These storms really do seem to be following me around.

Thanks for sharing - that's certainly good information to have!

I'm meeting friends in Catania tomorrow. I actually just booked my Airbnb a couple hours ago.

I saw a photo of Grammichele's architecture in a 'history of Sicilia' video on YouTube, but with everyone I meet recommending Scicli/Ragusa Ibla/Siracusa, I wasn't sure I'd see it this trip. It looks like Siracusa is going to be in the brunt of the weather tomorrow. Maybe I'll get to see Grammichele after all!

Tomorrow's certainly going to be wet, but hopefully if I stay inland, it will be nowhere near as bad as Sunday. Thursday's supposed to be a thunderstorm, but my Airbnb is within a block of my friends'. Even if the weather is miserable, we can keep each other company.

It's still a few days out, but right now it looks like Scilla and onward should be okay after this Thursday storm Catania.

I didn't know I was being filmed!

I think it's funny that I'm doing a motorcycle tour of the biggest, most famous island in Italy, and I've barely seen any of the sea. It stormed along the coast at what would-be sunset on my first day, and I got chased along in the dark by another on the second.

Today was supposed to be nasty in Catania, so I made sure to give myself plenty of time to arrive yesterday. Thankfully, there was barely a drizzle, and most of the ride was dry.

My first leg was from Scicli to Grammichele. I stayed off the coast (where Siracusa is supposed to be one of the best parts of the whole island) to avoid the nasty weather. The direct route to Grammichele is only an hour, but the wiggly roads through Giarratana looked more moto-appealing on the map, so I took a chance and added the 40 minute detour.

It was indeed quite pretty. In the entire Modica region (inc. Ragusa/Scicli/Modica and all the way up to Giarratana) the plots of land are divided by a two-foot high pile of rocks called "muro a seccho." (As you might recognize from sun-dried tomatoes, "seccho" means "dry" There is no morter in these structures.) The roads are lined with them too. Every significant building in Italy makes you wonder "how in the hell did they find the rock, move the rock, sculpt the rock, stack the rock, etc. in ancient times?" Muro a seccho gives a similar impression. I can't even imagine how many manhours went into stacking hundreds of miles of rocks, but I'm glad that wasn't my job.

Grammichele was desolate. There might have been one bar open in the whole town. I stopped for just long enough to take a few photos of the main piazza. Grammichele's claim to fame is that it was leveled in an earthquake at the turn of the 18th century, and reconstructed around a hexagonal grid. The grid is quite cool: you can easily get to the piazza from anywhere in town, and you can move through the town easily too. Like modern American cities, the intersections usually have 4 even corners - there are no dog-legged streets. Come to think of it, it's basically the Burning Man grid, but in a permanent city.

Catania was one more hour of riding, but the road again looked too straight and boring, so I found the nearest wiggles and went that way instead: through Miteo, Nicchiara, Militello, and Scordia. I was probably one of the first people up those roads since the storm, and I probably wasn't supposed to be up there. Maybe half-a-dozen times, I rode over/through piles of rocks that had washed across the road. I'm not convinced most cars could have made that journey. One feature of Italy's mountain roads is the galleria: effectively a carport over a long stretch of road that allows water to flow above the traffic rather than on the road surface. The mountain wall of one of the gallerie had burst, with a big gash in the wall and a pile of debris in the road. (I should have taken some photos, but when everything is worth a photo, it's hard to convince yourself to stop for any of it.)

I thought I was going to ride into Catania along Lago di Lentini, but the carabineri had blocaded the road. Along the detour I encountered some construction equipment, a Jeep (that might have been military) and a couple of larger vehicles that certainly were. After the construction vehicle crossed the road, the sedan in front of me started to go, and the driver of the camo truck shouted at him. "Chiuso?" I asked. "Si." As I started to turn around, the other military guy who was chasing the sedan gave up, and he beckoned me to proceed as well. The road was narrow in spots, but it was open the whole way to Catania.

The entire city of Catania is closed today. There are a handful of delis and grocery stores open, but every other merchant is closed: no gelato, no coffee, no personal services or shopping for things other than food. The weather is relatively pleasant, but a storm is coming tomorrow.

My Airbnb is reasonably comfortable, but the lighting is too blue. It feels a bit too much dystopian office, and sitting around in it for 2 days waiting for a storm to pass didn't seem like a good time. I took my chances today to go up to Mount Etna before the storm hits.

As I started to get farther away from civilization and more into the park, the sky got darker and a bit drizzly. I stopped at a gas station to throw on my rain layers. There was a circle of Sicilian gentlemen chatting. I approached and asked:

How far to the top? (I tried asking in Italian, but the respondent changed to English.)
"40 minutes."
"Oof, that might be too far with the storm. How far to a panorama (vista point)?"
"10 minutes"

That seemed reasonable. I walked back to the moto and started donning my layers. (Just turning the bars and opening the seat knocked the Beverly off its sidestand. If I hadn't caught it, it would have been my first drop.)

The man approached.

"Oregon is in an hour."
"Cose?"
"Everything is closed by the order of the governor. Oregon is in an hour."
"Oregon?"

Oh shit, he means hurricane.

I tried to make it to a viewpoint, but the signage wasn't great up there, and wandering through what could be the beginnings of a hurricane didn't seem wise, so I headed back to town.

The storm that was supposed to hit today has been postponed to tomorrow. I guess I'll be staying in Catania another night. I had planned to do one-day-riding-one-day-wandering from Scicli yesterday to Amalfi next week. I had pencilled in Scilla, Tropea, Scalea, and Matera as 2 night stops. Now I have to figure out which one of them to skip.

Beautiful and engaging description!
Yes, the dry walls (muri a secco or "sekko" for pronunce ) are a characteristic of the hilly countryside and mountainous places of central southern and southern Italy.
In times of normal climate they act as a windbreak and a breakwater, prevent rainwater from dragging the earth away and prevent landslides.
How they are made? With a lot of patience and a lot of time ...
The art of working stone by dry stacking is very ancient in Italy, think that there are walls in some central southern cities that date back to over 3000 years ago, weigh several tons (yes! Tons!) And are dry stacked.
Alatri and San Felice Circeo (Latina) are some examples.

Alatri (Lazio region):
The walls are made up of several layers of polymorphic megaliths, coming from the same hill and made to fit together perfectly without the aid of lime or cement (polygonal work); with their perimeter they describe a trapezoidal area of 19,000 square meters. They reach their maximum elevation in the Pizzale, that is the south-eastern corner: tapered upwards, it is made up of fifteen large superimposed blocks.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropoli_di_Alatri

San Felice Circeo (Lazio -Latina region):

https://www.lazionascosto.it/siti-archeologiche-lazio/acropoli-del-circeo/

Thanks for the context!

One of the things that's really impressive about the walls is that they have a consistent profile. Somehow, with what you imagine would be a random collection of rocks, they fit them together so they taper and round off at the top. It almost looks like someone extruded a tiny lighthouse, and then changed the material to rocks.

I think you will enjoy watching this video:

I just took a peek at the 10 days forecasts of southern Italy. Looks like no matter where I go, there's a chance of rain basically everyday between now and when my Schengen visa expires in mid November. I suppose fall weather has arrived.

I confirm, from the first days of November the rainy season begins and I know why I have to harvest kiwis and work in the mud ...

Can Attila and Mayorofnow just have their own tv show please? I would watch.

Thankfully, there was no storm to speak of, just a day of drizzle. Still, being in a grey city that's been almost totally shut down for two days is getting to me.

The prospect of burning a week of vacation to go touring through a bunch of small towns during the potentially-rainy off season isn't completely appealing. After all, pandemic loneliness compounded by unexpectedly-short-relationship loneliness is what motivated me to be here in the first place. Still, it would feel like a missed opportunity to be in southern Italy with a motorcycle and skip all the places I've heard so many nice things about.

Right now, it looks like Puglia is going to be spared from the wetness that's consuming the rest of Italy. Tomorrow, I'll ride to Messina (the closest city to the mainland) and reassess. If it looks like I can head towards Puglia without too much miserable riding, I'll probably press on. If not, ferries to Napoli/Salerno leave from Messina and Palermo. I can also get to Sardegna and Rome from there, but they both have nasty weather this week too.

There's a week and a half left - I just need to decide where to spend it. I'm still hopeful that I can cap off my trip in Amalfi with some decent weather, but the weather report is skeptical.

In Latina there has been sun for about four days.

After two days of lockdown, it felt really nice to leave Catania.

It had been dry all morning, but I had a hunch the weather might turn. I pulled over at a gas station at the edge of town to don my rain layers. As soon as I hopped back on, it started raining. It was almost as if someone watched me dress for rain, and then flipped a switch. It rained the entire way to Taormina. An impatient, off-duty ambulance sped past with no room to spare, splashing runoff across my body and into my boots. Water seeped under my rain layers again. It was not a fun ride.

I made it to Messina at nightfall, grabbing a bite and researching some Airbnbs before going to bed. The room I had booked for that night was in a "bed and breakfast," but as is weirdly common in southern Italy, breakfast was not included. The street it was on was divided by train tracks, so U turn options were infrequent. The B+B signage was terrible, so I ended up riding up and down the sidewalk searching. I finally found it, parked, and rang the bell. Eventually, the door opened. I went up the elevator, but there was no B+B. It was in a crappy midcentury building that apparently had individual elevator banks for each wing of the building. I eventually found my accommodation, but nobody was there. I looked them up in my phone, called, and got the door code to let myself in. It was creepy being the only person lodging in a dark and dingy building. Turns out there was one other pair staying there, who loudly made themselves known at 1-2 AM. Not fun noises, just commotion.

Looked at my phone when I woke up, and felt a little extra grumpy for the lack of sleep. Strapped on the bag, made my way over to the ferry, and joined the locals with a morning cannolo and cappuccino from the onboard bar. The ferry landed at 12:40, but the Beverly read "13:40." I knew it was right, because I had set it myself a week earlier. That's how I discovered that the autumnal boogeyman Standard Time had stolen an hour of my afternoon (which also explained why I thought I got so little sleep).

The ferry landed near a little beach town called Scilla. I stopped for lunch, and was really tempted to make my way up into the mountains of Aspromonte National Park. The skies looked clear, but considering my unexpectedly late start, the guarantee all the weather apps gave that rain was coming, and that I hadn't yet booked my room for the night, I headed north towards Tropea.

It was the first day with open businesses and no rain that I'd seen in probably a week. I decided to celebrate with a gelato. Google said there were a couple options in the next town up the mountain, but I couldn't believe the "road" it sent me on. It was an overgrown cobblestone sidewalk, steeper than anything I recall from my decade+ in San Francisco. It was the only time I've ever doubted the power of an HPE. I didn't know CVTs had a clutch, but it sure smelled like I had burned through one when I reached the apex a few hundred meters later.

There are a surprising number of feral dogs in Calabria. One of them bit my foot while I was searching for gelato, but thankfully my boots stopped him.

Tropea's claim to fame is their sweet red onions. I have a surprise for you: they tasted like onions. Granted, I like onions, but if you hadn't told me they were the local delicacy, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.

I had impulse bought a Nintendo in Napoli amidst my unease about spending 12+ hours on a ferry alone. Having made a friend on the boat, it was still fresh in the box, unplayed. I spent my day in Tropea walking on the beach, eating a couple meals, and trying out the Nintendo. After three months on the road, it finally felt like I had a vacation day!

My flight is in a week, and I wanted to ship a few things home to make the flight easier. I took the accessories that came with the Nintendo and a bunch of Sicilian chocolate to the only DHL I could find in Calabria. Sending yourself a package from abroad is surprisingly complicated. I think I was there for an hour, and I'm still not confident I'll actually get the package I spent 100EUR to send.

It was around 2 PM when I left. As I've discovered repeatedly this trip, that's the beginning of restaurant changeover - when most places are closed for lunch, but not yet open for dinner. I pulled out my phone and looked at the map - apparently I had crossed half of Calabria to get to this DHL. I tapped "restaurants, open now," and navigated to the first one that came up. I lucked out. It was one of the best meals I've had this trip: gnocconi - stuffed with squash like tortellini, shaped like a potsticker, and made from gnocchi dough.

After miserable rides in Sicily's rainy days, I made sure to check the weather before committing to making the trek to Napoli on two wheels. The weather apps all agreed: the day I spent in Tropea should be rainy. Then, if I ride east towards Puglia, I'll miss the storm that's currently hitting Napoli/Amalfi, and I can return on Sunday for clear weather.

Before I went to bed last night, I double checked the weather along my route from Scalea to Matera. It was now supposed to start raining midday. Fuck.

I got another crappy night's sleep last night, but it's a day I've been looking forward to: riding through Pollino National Park to Matera. It was also perhaps the longest of the trip: Google said to expect 4.5 hours of riding if I go through the park. Figuring that my body has been on Euro Daylight Time for the last two months, I hustled out of the B+B to get an early start. I strapped the bag onto the Beverly and prophylactically donned my rain layers. Once again, it started raining as soon as I tugged the zipper. The switch flipper had struck again...

My first destination was a pasticceria an hour and a half into the park, perfect timing to break up the ride and tide me over until lunch. Again I checked the weather: heavy rain was expected nearby for the next two hours. Again I hustled out of there, and again the rain resumed as soon as I left. Thankfully it still wasn't dreadfully heavy.

I rode really carefully today. Between the rain, the fall colors, the rented ride, and the road surface, I didn't trust leaning into my tires. Sure enough, 9 miles after breakfast, I entered an S curve, and there was no way I was making the second turn. It felt like I was in an ice rink: the Beverly did a donut and skid to a stop facing the direction I came.

The park had felt pretty empty, but I was surprised how many drivers went past while I collected myself. Thankfully they were driving carefully too, as the middle of an S curve is not a good place to lay down. The first one to pass was nice enough to pull over and helped me get the Beverly to the side of the road.

As I noticed while standing it back up, even the big, lugged soles on my Stormhawks had a hard time keeping traction on that road. No wonder the Beverly slipped.

I'm still not entirely sure what happened. Somehow, the left bag strap failed, so the bag slid off to the right and wedged itself between the Beverly and the road. I hadn't paid close attention to the composition of those straps before. Each end has a metal buckle and a short length of strap. That short length is sewn onto a plastic adjuster, which the longer length of strap is fed through. The plastic is what failed.

That bag has 6 points of contact: two front-back straps, and one for each side. One of the front-back straps is the one that broke, so I tried tying the broken end to the luggage rack. As I realized over the remainder of the ride, the Vespa luggage rack has a vertical back, but the Beverly's does not. Without that support, there's nothing for the bag to brace itself against. Since there's now also a missing corner on the tie-down, I can't secure the bag onto the luggage rack. It works its way forward onto the seat. I'll have to fix the strap before I can carry on.

Since I had sent its box home yesterday, the brand new Nintendo was in my bag, and was probably the first thing to hit the ground. When I packed, I definitely wasn't considering "what happens if I wipe out?" The screen seems okay, but one of the controllers has a nasty bend. I haven't tried playing it yet.

My work laptop seems to be working normally. Thankfully I haven't discovered any leaking toiletries in my bag either.

I'm pretty sure I'm not getting my deposit back on this Beverly.

I haven't looked closely at my gear, but I don't think any of it is damaged. I was going pretty slowly, and there was basically no friction on the road. My bags only have a couple scuffs.

My back and my wrists were a bit more stiff than usual this afternoon, but I don't think there's any lasting damage. These were the most favorable conditions I could have gone down in. Scary to think about how other crashes could turn out.

There was a slippery intersection in Thailand on my very first PTW ride, but I've kept the rubber side down for something like 24,000 miles since then. That clock reset today.

If the weather apps are to be trusted (and at this point, who knows), tomorrow is going to be hot and the following days are going to be rainy. We'll see what tomorrow brings for me. I really wanted to see Puglia, but I think I need a day off to wander the town, get a massage, and stay the hell off the road. I have no idea how I'm going to deal if I have to ride 4 hours back to the Mediterranean in a thunderstorm on Saturday.

Looks like the weather provided a lot more adventure than you bargained for.
You've shown some admirable perseverance, IMHO.

I'm reminded of my youthful attempt at doing a European bike tour back decades ago. I'd brought my bike (thanks, Icelandic!), rode from Luxembourg to Freiburg im Breisgau and discovered quickly that this was turning out to be the coldest, wettest spring in recent history. Fortunately my friend in Freiburg had a backup plan....and the Eurail pass saved the day.

"... and Ulysses first skirted the island of the Sirens, then faced the Wandering Rocks and the strait between Charybdis and Scylla where the monster Scylla devoured some sailors ..."

An american's odyssey in Italy.