Celebrating 50 years of motorcycling

To celebrate my 50th year of motorcycling we decided to cross the Alps and visit Italy and Switzerland.

My wife and I decided that as it was my 66th birthday this year we should celebrate it by crossing the Alps to Italy and Switzerland. So on went the TomTom and we set off on our 1986 Honda 1100 Shadow to Channel Tunnel and our first stop Dijon, France, round about 500 miles from Hampshire, stayed in hotel and set off for Aosta, Italy through the Mont Blanc tunnel, stayed in Aosta for a couple of days to explore the St. Bernard Pass and into Switzerland.

We emailed from our hotel the Ducati factory and booked a visit. TomTom found us a great campsite in Bolonga about 7 miles from Ducati factory. Really enjoyed the factory visit, there were six of us: 2 Germans and a Canadian honeymoon couple. I said to the couple you will never forget your honeymoon visiting the Bolonga Ducati factory and we all laughed about it.

After Bolonga we travelled to Pesaro and booked into a hotel. My wife is a big Rossi fan so we had to visit Tuvella and the Rossi fan club to buy the T-shirt. We spent a week at Pesaro and in the town square on Sunday the Pesaro scooter club were celebrating their 50th anniversary with a run with scooters coming from all over Italy, some had took over 2 days to get there. It was a great day seeing them off on their run.

We were the only English-speakers there and when the last scooter came in they give us a goody bag with T-shirt, etc. Really nice gesture after I had mentioned I had a PX200E. We left Pesaro 7 a.m. and set off for Aosta making it in a day. Booked in hotel for the night.

Next morning set off for Lake Lucerne and TomTom found us another great campsite. Really liked Lake Lucerne, stayed for a week just relaxing and swimming. Set off to Rennes to visit my wife’s sister. Stayed for 2 weeks and then made our work back to Hampshire. Total mileage 3,800 miles.