🇮🇹 Italy Part 2 – Nutella biscuits
6 days and 1,247km (Total: 20 days and 4,099km)
We’re almost three weeks into our trip from Jersey to Japan and we’re starting to find our groove. The motorbike is our vehicle to see the world and the “seeing” mostly comes from when we’re off the bike in the evenings, mornings, and stops throughout the day. When we’re on the bike it’s either a sensory overdose from beautiful sights, the lovely sound of birds (or the Africa Twin in 6th gear), and the feeling of twisty roads, or relatively uninteresting towns with the constant stop-and-start of traffic lights and roundabouts.
Our days start with coffee and breakfast, before packing up the bike, and hitting the road between 9am and 10am. We have been riding 200-300km per day (4-5 hours) and stop every hour or so for a break as the scenery or our bladders dictate. Previously our bums had a say but they are slowly making friends with the saddle. The evenings usually involve a local beer and some cheap but satisfying food.
We have now finished 13 days in Italy. Since Rome we have done another 6 days including day trips to Naples and Venice (I’m not sure why we don’t just call by their actual names, Napoli and Venezia?). Naples was not what I was expecting. Instead of a chic Mediterranean city like Monaco, we arrived to a sprawling chaos throughout unclean streets. Basically, it was more of a big city than I was expecting. The highlight was going to Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte and finding a random pianist playing Beethoven in an almost empty room the size of a school gym. (Maybe he wasn’t random…)
Venice, on the contrary, was just as surreal as it is in the post cards. I really think it might be the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen. We walked around all day, probably crossing 30 of the 438 bridges, and finished the day with an aperol spritz next to a guy lighting Candles and dripping the red wax over uncooked pasta which he claimed to represent Trump Tower. I would spend another €4 on the spritz but not his artwork. We finished the day with our third and final pizza in Italy, sitting next to a small river in Treviso and watching the world go by. Perfection.
However the most potent memories came from outside the cities.
On our first night between Naples and Venice we stayed in the countryside home of a Kyrgyz woman called Tatiana who had been living in Italy for 23 years. We had a room in her house with no other guests so basically had the place to ourselves. We cooked our own pasta ragu (tasted great to me; locals might say otherwise) and went for a walk with Tatiana and her two pugs to see the neighbour’s horses. When we arrived we couldn’t see the horses because “they are having sex”, but we lucked out because he gave us a tour of his olive farm instead! We returned happy and content.
Nutella biscuits enter the story the next evening when we found a small winery that let you pitch your tent in their vineyard for €20. We went out for dinner and found an amazing pizzeria (which we later discovered was in San Marino – another country ticked off!) and stuffed ourselves for €14. The owner kindly filled up our flask with boiling water so we could make tea in our tent when we got back. The question was: what do we have with our tea?
The title gives it away so I’ll cut to the chase. We got back to the tent and enjoyed a truly stunning moment with our tea and Nutella biscuits whilst the sun set over the winery.
The next day we woke to the sun and warmth of proper summer. We were excited to get back on the bike.
Next stop: East