16 days/14 Riding Days!
Riding in Italy provides a depth of experience, matched by few places in the world. Our Tuscany/Sardinia/Corsica Tour, is more than just a motorcycle adventure; it’s an experience for all your senses. Twisty and challenging; the roads of coastal Sardinia and mountainous Corsica thrill, through every kilometre. We spend a few days on these islands, enjoying first-class coastal resorts. Before and after the islands, the rolling hills and medieval-era hill-top villages of Tuscany yield to the great cities of Florence, Siena and Pisa, which offer stunning art and architecture, not to mention exquisite regional food and wine.The final award to your senses before heading back to Venice is the amazing collection of coastal villages known as Cinque Terre.
Day 1: Arrival to Venice. Fly in to the beautiful city of Venice. We’ll meet you at the airport and take you to your hotel. Depending on your time of arrival, we may be able to direct you to the bus or taxi for an afternoon of strolling in Venice. At 5 PM we’ll meet for a tour briefing and after that head for a welcome dinner at a classic ItalianTrattoria.
Day 2: Venice – Florence. We are up early today, and from Venice we ride south. Here you’ll start to experience the fabulous riding which makes Italy famous as a touring destination. As we pass through Bologna, we can stop and tour the Ducati factory and museum. Bologna is famous for its distinctive cuisine, including lasagna and tortellini. After lunch, the road gets nice and twisty through the Apennine Mountains, a range of mostly green and wooded mountains which form the backbone of Italy. Great riding begins here and continues for the next two weeks! In the evening we pull into Florence, a colorful and beautiful city with a rich Renaissance history.
Day 3: Florence rest day. Ride out of Florence on the curvy, low mountain roads, experiencing the legendary beauty of theTuscan countryside. One can ride for what seems like forever, only stopping for lunch in a small village to sample the wonderful fresh farm produce this area has to offer. Or spend the rest day in the fabled city of Florence and see all the attractions that are on offer. Start with a stroll to the Cattadrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, or Duomo, with its famous colorful, towering cupola. Then take a walk over Italy’s most famous Old Bridge, the Ponte Vecchio. If art interests you, the Galleria Degli Uffizi houses the greatest collection of Renaissance art in the world. And don’t miss Michelangelo’s ‘The David’ at the Galleria dell’Accedemia.
Day 4: Florence – Siena. Today we take to the sweeping roads between Florence and Siena. Some of the best motorcycle touring can be found here, undulating roads through the scenic vineyards of the Chianti wine growing region, and through Caprese Michelangelo, the birth place of the famous artist. Along the way, small castles sometimes house a winery or a traditional Tuscan restaurant. Here, it is possible to sample some Chianti with our traditional Tuscan dinner. In the evening we pull into Siena.
Day 5: Rest day in Siena. On the rest day, a ride through the Montepulciano and San Gimignano area provide fantastic hilly terrain and pretty little villages set amongst fields of alfalfa and sunflowers. Turn after wide turn leads us through the undulating terrain thatTuscany offers. Or simply enjoy Siena, one of Italy’s most enchanting medieval towns. Stroll in the Piazza del Campo, the sunny main square where the locals gather, or wander the warren of narrow, medieval alleyways.
Day 6: Siena – Livorno (ferry crossing to Sardinia). From Siena, we head northwest to Livorno. If you didn’t ride on the rest day, now is the time to experience the rolling green hills and picturesque farmland that makes theTuscan countryside legendary. In Livorno, we board an overnight ferry for Sardinia, and watch the coastline of the mainland melt into the Mediterranean. We spend the night on the boat in comfortable cruise cabins.
Day 7: Olbia – Cala Gonone. Some of the best roads in the whole of Italy can be found in Sardinia, and the fantastic riding is the main reason we are there. Geographically distinct from the mainland, Sardinia is made up of vibrantly green gorges and valleys, and spectacular stretches of unspoiled coastline. Here you will experience the narrow twisties, hairpin turns, and cliff hanging precipices of some of the most exciting motorcycle roads in the world. We disembark the ferry at Olbia, then head out to get our first taste of this fantastic riding.
Day 8: Rest day in Cala Gonone. The town of Oliena provides a base for exploring the western side of the island. We’ll spend a full day here to really explore and truly appreciate the amazing riding. Turn after turn of tight arcs takes us through the mountainous interior, and the views are stunning. Sardinia has a proud history dating back to Paleolithic times, marked by circular stone fortresses called nuraghe. Thousands of these remain, scattered throughout the island, and provide interesting exploration during rest stops.
Day 9: Cala Gonone – Alghero. Today we head to the eastern side of the island via more of the terrific interior mountain roads. You’ll experience thoroughly active riding, as the road coils through the rugged terrain, heading briefly south then turning sharply east through mountain twisties, to the coastal town of Alghero. Tonight, seafood is on the menu, and we stay at a beautiful coastal resort hotel, providing a wonderful and scenic night’s rest after a big day of vigorous and memorable touring.
Day 10: Alghero – Bonifacio. One last extraordinary Sardinian ride leads us to the coastal town of Castelsardo, one of the two strongholds on Sardinia Island. We’ll take a walk trough the alleyways of the city centre up to the Castello, the citadel. We than take a scenic ferry to Corsica, a proud island with an independent identity, now part of France. In contrast to our days in Italy, here we’ll ride through villages which have a French feel. We end the day in Bonifacio, a seaside city perched on towering limestone cliffs.
Day 11: Bonifacio – Porto. Like Sardinia, Corsica provides for some fabulous once- in-a-lifetime rides. Often known as the Mountain in the Sea, Corsica has more mountains and rivers than any Mediterranean island. From Bonifacio, we ride the mountainous inland passing trough small village of Piana with its spiky red granite rocks, rising up to 440m above the azure sea. We end up the day in Porto, little seaside resort on the west coast, where luckily you can catch the most dazzling sunset in the Mediterranean.
Day 12: Porto – Bastia. Another day of great twisties takes us inland through the city of Corte in the center of Corsican mountains. We head back to the coast to stop in a fishing port and nowadays a popular summer vacation spot of Saint Florent. From here on we continue to Bastia, home of the most famous man in the history of Corsica, Napoleon Bonaparte.
Day 13: Bastia – Cinque Terre. In the morning you can head north for a phenomenal ride to Cap Corse, a 40 km long peninsula at the northern tip of the island, where villages perched on cliffs and secluded sandy coves fringe the coastline. After lunch we’ll take a ferry back to the mainland and continue to our destination in Cinque Terre, one of Italy’s most scenic treasures.
Day 14: Rest day in Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre consist of five villages, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso that all face onto the sea, and are cut off by mountains choked with olive groves and dry-stonewalled vineyards. We’ll spend the rest day exploring these great little villages that have been spared from a propagation of T-shirt shops and tacky souvenir stands. Cars and motorbikes are not allowed in the villages. We’ll use the boats from which the views are truly spectacular. Or you can choose to hike on scenic footpaths through vineyards and forests.
Day 15: Cinque Terre – Venice. In the morning, we ride over the Apennine Mountains and soon reach the town of Maranello, the home of the Ferrari factory and museum, which we can visit.You can also rent a Ferrari and go for a spin around the town or into the mountains.Take in the last of beautifulTuscany on our ride home.The sight of this unforgettable landscape will stay with you forever. We ride towards Bologna and end once again end in romantic Venice.
Day 16: Flight home from Venice. Depart Venice. Spending one or two nights in Venice at the end of the tour is of course a great idea, especially if you have not done so at the beginning. Take a boat ride on the Grand Canal, Venice’s main waterway lined with Renaissance palaces. You can disembark at the Piazza San Marco and stop to appreciate the intricate architecture of Basilica di San Marco. Then wander the streets, marvelling at the sheer number of tiny arched bridge ways over the many, meandering canals.