Unfortunately Rome is the last stop on this trip. It’s been some 2 months ago that we left with the bike in France. A lot has happened, a lot of experiences. Below you find a few.

1. Driving too long hurts the bum

I’ve been on a motorcycle before (as a passenger too), but I’ve never really travelled day in day out with it. It is pretty amazing, because you take in the scenery more intensely. You are close to everything, you feel the sun, the wind, the smells. What you also feel is your butt. And your legs. So Nico and I tried to drive not longer than 2 hours a day. Giving us time to relax, stretch the legs and save the bum!

2. French people REALLY love cheese

We kicked off the trip with a wedding of friends in the south of France. I felt spoiled being part of such a great wedding. I loved the setting, the atmosphere, the party and last but certainly not least: the wedding cake – made out of cheese. Yep! You gotta love the frenchies!

3. The Dolomites are crazy beautiful

The Dolomites are huge. So many different mountains and peaks. A peak I remember is Sasso Piatto, 2960 meter high. We hiked and did via ferrata. It was just beautiful! A bit cloudy, but still very impressive!

4. Never drive in the rain

You don’t want to drive in the rain. Never. It happened to us in France and it was horrible. We were meeting friends in the Dolomites so we had pressure to be there on time. Bad idea, because it rained. After 10 minutes in the rain you are just soaked and there is no fun at all. And we drove 2 hours in it.. That day was the last time we drove in the rain. Very good decision, because later on our trip we met great people when we got stuck in the rain.

5. The sweetest people are hidden in the tiniest villages

The Italian personality in general is one I’m not really used to. A lot of people were not friendly on a daily base. But then we allowed ourselves to get lost in the mountains and there in those little towns we met the kindest people.

For example Azelio, a police agent (carabinieri) in his forties. We were planning to camp somewhere in the Alpi Apuane area, but it was raining all day. We looked for shelter, drove for 20 minutes, then had to look again for shelter. After a while (we already had had a break of 2 hours and a lot of coffees and wines) we decided to stop in a random town. We’re eating in a local restaurant when a cop suddenly enters. “Is that your motorbike outside?”.

We thought we had to move it because it wasn’t parked right – but hey it’s Italy.. We confirm his question and he says: “It is in the rain, would you like to put it somewhere sheltered? I have a garage where you can put it. And if you want you can to come to my house and warm up a bit at the stove.” Of course we did everything he suggested, so we had a beer together at his fire, while his son was making his homework. Then he walked with us to a B&B to make sure we had a place to sleep. Nice guy, right? But there is more. In the B&B I asked the lady if we could use her kitchen to boil some pasta. An hour later we go downstairs to cook and we find the table all set with fresh warm ravioli and a bottle of wine. The cop apparently had come by to give this to us..

6. There are a lot of mountains in Italy

Everybody knows that Italy has a big mountain range in the north. Well, apparently there are almost mountains everywhere. One third of the country is covered with ranges above 700 meter. We didn’t really expect that, but we loved it! We checked out the Dolomites, Parco Regionale delle Alpi Apuane and Parco del Monte Subasio.

But the highlight of the trip: Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini and Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso e Monti della laga. Two amazing parks that are connected to each other. It was an incredible experience, because it was so beautiful and still saved from the tourists. I will go closer into those 2 parks in a next post!

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Tomorrow I fly to France, to start a trip with my boyfriend and his motorbike. I didn’t share this on the blog before, but that (French) guy is one of the many beautiful things New Zealand was hiding – one I discovered. I will save you all the cheesy details.

Our plan is just the way I like it – without any. We kick off our journey with a wedding of friends in the south of France and then drive slowly to the Dolomites in Italy – where we’ll meet a bunch of people from New Zealand. In between some hiking and climbing. And then we don’t know. Drive a bit over the hills in Italy, have good food, wine and scenery. The month November is still a blank page. We will be camping, so a bit of warmth is welcome! If anyone has any ideas, shoot!

And last but not least, in december I will go to India, because one of my girlfriends is getting married in Calcutta. It looks like I keep on traveling.. But admit, a wedding in India? You can’t skip that!

A lot of exciting times on the road ahead!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRKNw477onU&w=540&h=350]

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