I’m not sure how many of you are Harley-Davidson lovers, but those who are know what participating to a rally feels like. The feeling you get, that unique sensation of being in family, even if you are among people whom you never saw before in your life.
And if to that feeling you add the possibility of seeing every possible and imaginable version of your favourite bike (or more properly passion) the game is on! As the final touch, framing it all, a collection of Tuscan landscapes. All of that is Tuscany Regional Rally.
As we leave from Montecatini Friday at lunchtime, with a lovely weather that got worse later on, gifting us with a proper cloudburst on the Tuscan highway. By that time, we were already expecting the worst, but luckily enough the weather started picking up a little later, so much that we found the sun waiting on our arrival.
First stop, B&B “Casa Nonna Zaira”: big room, with everything at your disposable, daily room cleaning. The bathroom is shared, but in your room you get a sink with a mirror… It looked like one of those old-fashioned thing, with the sink and the jug. How peculiar!
Just after we checked in, we decided to go to the rally, not to miss a second of it, and already while going, especially after Montecatini tollbooth, we couldn’t but see Harleys everywhere, and we felt all excited about it! We started looking for the place, not knowing exactly where it was. There, something that was missing: not even one indication to the rally. A rally with all the Tuscan chapters and no indications at all? Eventually we met a biker at the gas station, who kindly pointed us to our common destination.
We managed to get in, and immediately figured out that the whole event was divided in three parts: on our left the tent where to eat and where concerts were held, the shops were on our right, and in front of us all the Harleys were parked on display. Obviously that was the most interesting part at that moment, were we rushed to. Actually we were expecting much more from this event, it was pretty poor… a few Harleys and a few shops. An amazing thing, though, was the food!There was a some kind of self-service, we got steak and salad and it was.. you can never imagine how good that meat was! We could have eaten 4 more of those… luckily enough we were on a diet, we had to hold ourselves back, or we would never stopped eating steaks.
After a few hour in there, we hadn’t had left much to do, and since our friends didn’t know when they would have arrived, and also because it was 10:30 PM and the weather was freezing, we decided to go back to our room.
The following morning we ringed our friends (whom also came for the rally, by bike and with the chapter) to go see the town and have lunch together. I must say that Montecatini is a fine little city, but there is not much to see.. or, maybe, we didn’t find anything… we didn’t go to the thermal baths, for example.
At lunchtime we stopped at the Gambrinus, a restaurant with outer tables in a little square in town center. It wasn’t bad, but the prices were too high. After another search of something to see in Montecatini, we said goodbye to our friends whom had a meeting with their chapter, and decided to go to Vinci, to check off another item from our bucket list.
First stop, B&B “Casa Nonna Zaira”: big room, with everything at your disposable, daily room cleaning. The bathroom is shared, but in your room you get a sink with a mirror… It looked like one of those old-fashioned thing, with the sink and the jug. How peculiar!
Just after we checked in, we decided to go to the rally, not to miss a second of it, and already while going, especially after Montecatini tollbooth, we couldn’t but see Harleys everywhere, and we felt all excited about it! We started looking for the place, not knowing exactly where it was. There, something that was missing: not even one indication to the rally. A rally with all the Tuscan chapters and no indications at all? Eventually we met a biker at the gas station, who kindly pointed us to our common destination.
We managed to get in, and immediately figured out that the whole event was divided in three parts: on our left the tent where to eat and where concerts were held, the shops were on our right, and in front of us all the Harleys were parked on display. Obviously that was the most interesting part at that moment, were we rushed to. Actually we were expecting much more from this event, it was pretty poor… a few Harleys and a few shops. An amazing thing, though, was the food!There was a some kind of self-service, we got steak and salad and it was.. you can never imagine how good that meat was! We could have eaten 4 more of those… luckily enough we were on a diet, we had to hold ourselves back, or we would never stopped eating steaks.
After a few hour in there, we hadn’t had left much to do, and since our friends didn’t know when they would have arrived, and also because it was 10:30 PM and the weather was freezing, we decided to go back to our room.
The following morning we ringed our friends (whom also came for the rally, by bike and with the chapter) to go see the town and have lunch together. I must say that Montecatini is a fine little city, but there is not much to see.. or, maybe, we didn’t find anything… we didn’t go to the thermal baths, for example.
At lunchtime we stopped at the Gambrinus, a restaurant with outer tables in a little square in town center. It wasn’t bad, but the prices were too high. After another search of something to see in Montecatini, we said goodbye to our friends whom had a meeting with their chapter, and decided to go to Vinci, to check off another item from our bucket list.
Arrived to Vinci (the right one this time), we found out that it is much bigger and nicer of what we expected. First things first, we followed the directions to Leonardo da Vinci birthplace, so to get on with our thing-to-do right away. Also here, anyway, the road isn’t very good, narrow uphill roads, and two ways.. And then guess what? The house was closed for restorations!
Done that, we went down to the town. It is the classical Tuscan medieval burg, characteristic, lovely of a beauty made of simple things: views at every corner, wall covered with grass, lovely little squares, pebbles and alleys, panoramas on the farms. It is one of those towns where you expect nothing nice to see, but when you go there you get so charmed that you wouldn’t lose a single thing so you visit every corner, every alley. Going around through town, it opens in front of us a small square with a big sphere in which is reproduced The Vitruvian Man, overlooking Tuscan farm side. The peculiar thing is that a little farther, following the directions to Leonardo’s museum, there is yet another little square oddly decorated, almost in modern-art: the pavement is all gray, you can see ditches and bumps with Leonardo notes wrote with what seems to be chalk. Old and new melts perfectly together. Of course modern-art is pretty peculiar, it is known (in fact that head mounted on a sort of dodecahedron wasn’t really something we enjoyed it was a little… ehm.. it is strange to see it let’s only say this..), and yet they managed to do everything perfectly. Ticket’s price was a little too high for us (too bad!), so we left, satisfied nevertheless, already imagining what will expect us on the next day.
Done that, we went down to the town. It is the classical Tuscan medieval burg, characteristic, lovely of a beauty made of simple things: views at every corner, wall covered with grass, lovely little squares, pebbles and alleys, panoramas on the farms. It is one of those towns where you expect nothing nice to see, but when you go there you get so charmed that you wouldn’t lose a single thing so you visit every corner, every alley. Going around through town, it opens in front of us a small square with a big sphere in which is reproduced The Vitruvian Man, overlooking Tuscan farm side. The peculiar thing is that a little farther, following the directions to Leonardo’s museum, there is yet another little square oddly decorated, almost in modern-art: the pavement is all gray, you can see ditches and bumps with Leonardo notes wrote with what seems to be chalk. Old and new melts perfectly together. Of course modern-art is pretty peculiar, it is known (in fact that head mounted on a sort of dodecahedron wasn’t really something we enjoyed it was a little… ehm.. it is strange to see it let’s only say this..), and yet they managed to do everything perfectly. Ticket’s price was a little too high for us (too bad!), so we left, satisfied nevertheless, already imagining what will expect us on the next day.
A lovely Sunday morning waked us up, and on our way to Pisa, the first thing we see is a chapter of Harley riders, riding in perfect formation, engine roaring. How amazing seeing them like that, breathing the sensations you get on your saddle! As we passed them, we kept our fingers out the window to salute them, and they “lamped” us in response. Not many miles ahead, we sighted seeing them leaving the highway while we kept onto our next destination.
