A four hours ride took me to the town Alghero on the northwest coast of Sardinia. Below are some pictures from the place I left:

So, when I left yesterday I took a drive along the cost before I headed towards Palermo. Couldn’t “do” Palermo with all my packing, so I found a café in a small town where I sat for a couple of hours biding my time. The temperature went up to 38 degrees on my way to Palermo, and that his hot! Then I had (as I wrote before) four hours of waiting. Finally I got use of my “kitchen” and the dried food. So I had an excellent pasta by the bike:-)

At last I was able to drive on to the ferry and find my seat. It was not the most comfortable seat, but with my sleeping bag and my inflatable pillow I managed to get a fair amount of sleep. In the morning on the ferry I met a group of Canadians and Americans doing southern Italy on rented bikes. They meet up every year in different places around the world and do a trip together for two weeks.

Got of the ferry and started my drive towards Alghero. I had to stop and put on some more clothes (!!), because the temperature dropped down to 16 degrees. A temperature drop of 22 degrees from the day before!

Soon a quick shower and then out to see Alghero, I do hope it’s a nice town! Tomorrow I have booked tickets on the ferry going to Genoa and preliminary plan says one night in Austria or southern part of Germany, and then on night maybe close to Hannover with the aim to be in Lund (Sweden) on Thursday night. I believe I have had an overdose of Italy and I’m quite happy to head back up north.

for the ferry to leave (4 hours). Can’t leave the bike and all my packing unfortunately so I’ll just have to wait by the harbour

At least on the blogg. No, nothing happening here and that was the purpose:-) A bit touristic for my taste, and almost more salespeople (hats, sunglasses, jewelry) than visitors on the beach. And the beach is crowded! Lots of restaurants, but they all look the same. A bit to warm to go exploring with the bike, so I just take it slow and read books! Might issue some road movies, but otherwise I guess I’ll be back when I’m on Sardinia (Sunday). Taking a night ferry leaving Palermo Saturday night.

Took a while…. Started at 8ish and came to the B&B at 18.30. I must say, I didn’t realize that Sicily was that big:-(. Had my first theft during all my trips today. Somebody nicked my GoPro from the bike. They just broke it off from the bike. Luckily I had saved all the filmes. So hopefully the insurance company will partly sponsor me for a brand new GoPro:-). Still got my helmet cam, so I’m okey.

Had some nice driving along the cost to start with, but then it was just “driving” to the port to get to Messina. Got on a ferry at 13.30 and the trip only takes 20 minutes. Then it took me some 30 minutes to get out of Messina. But then I used toll roads for the first time in Italy. And this one was amazing. It was some 200 kilometers, and I honestly believe that more than 50 % of that was in tunnels. Felt like I was driving indoors all the time. Today that was really good, because the temperature went all the way up to 36,5 degrees. I now had a chance to test my cooling gear and it really helps. A sweater that you get soaked in water and then put it on. From the wind, you have a really good cooling effect. What is so special with this is that it contains the water for a long time. But never the less, I made it despite the heat. No pictures taken today, and tomorrow I will not even touch the bike:-) I will just stroll down to the beach and do nothing at all.

Late update, some statistics so far:

Distance covered: 3.622 kilometers
Average speed: 63km/h
Fuel consumption: 5,1 L/100 km
Gear shifts: 37.303
Average throttle: 9%
Front wheel brakes: 14.935
Back wheel brakes: 25.823
Lowest temperature: -2
Highest temperature: 37

Just a minute and a half of a 30 minutes drive over a mountain. Most likely the shortest way, but not the fastest. Pretty steep at some sections

In the Italian boot! A small B&B by the sea. Had some amazing first 30 minutes of driving today, but the rest was nothing particular. Tomorrow I will drive to Sicily, have a reservation there for five nights. On Saturday I have booked place on the ferry going to Sardinia. Hopefully I will be able to publish parts of this morning’s drive.

So, now some pictures from today. We start off this morning at the B&B:

And finally the owners both animals and humans:

Then to the trip of today. As always, I trust my GPS completely. It’s set to avoid toll road, and in Italy I get to see a lot of the country side. Once again, a fantastic day driving. A bit warm (28 degrees most of the time) but still okey. Unfortunately, there wasn’t that any good spots to stop and take pictures, so you just have to believe me. Arrived in Arpino, an old town dating back to the Roman empire, and located high up on a mountain. Located some 100 kilometers east south east from Rome. Checked in, and waited for the sunset (gets a warmer light in the pictures) before I went out walking. I know sunset is not a challenge picture wise, but still the sunset was magnificent.

After waiting and waiting before I could have my dinner (why do they eat so late down here?) I found a small Trattoria. As always down here, they didn’t speak any english. But I managed to order (lamb I believe). Wasn’t the best meal I had, but the atmosphere was definitely genuine. After a while the chef came out and sat down at my table. He could speak some english, and it turned out that he used to live in Africa driving tourist around on motorcycles and cars. So we had a long chat before it was time to leave (I was the only guest left). Tomorrow is not decided yet, we just have to wait and see.

Bag in box is taken to a different level down here:-)

And finally all the staff at the Trattoria, and the owner was pretty proud when I told him that he looked like Robert De Niro:-)

more to come…

Wow, what a night. Barbecue in Tuscany with family and friends of the owners of the B&B. Started with sangria and then barbecue with charcoal from a huge fireplace. Plenty of wine and coffee and cake to end it all. Felt like I was in a Fellini movie, sitting out in the garden, everyone discussing in Italian, laughing and enjoying life. I guess this was an unusual experience for a guest at this B&B, but never the less, if you plan to go to Tuscany, I can strongly recommend this lovely place, and especially Liliana and Mauritzio that truly are really warm and caring persons (http://villarianna.com/).

 So, now some information about the day. Started off from Verona at around 10 am. First 200 k was rather boring, trucks, traffic and nothing to see. But when I arrived to Modena things improved. Suddenly the traffic disappeared, and the roads became funny to drive. After some 50 kilometers the temperature sank from 23 to 14. No wonder, the altitude was close to 1.400 meters. From time to time the roads were not in mint condition, but overall one of the best drives ever. So I highly recommend driving from Modena to Lucca. My original plan was to go by Pisa, just to take a picture of the leaning tower, but I was to tired to even think about entering traffic jams in a city, so Pisa will have to rest. Not really on the bucketlist either. Had booked a B&B in Tuscany with great reviews on Tripadvisor. And so far everything seems to be correct. Lovely couple that runs the B&B and best of all, they speak English:-). Normally they serve dinner, but tonight they are having friends over for a barbecue and they asked me if I wanted to join.  And I accepted of course. Tomorrow I most likely will head for Sorrento, but that will be settled later tonight! Below are some pictures from todays trip. I do believe I have some nice film clips as well, but that will come later.

And finally, the Juliet’s balcony

Arrived safely to Verona. More about this day later. Now a shower and a dinner!

Now that was done. An excellent dinner at a local Trattoria (recommended by the owner of the hotel). Back to the hotel to find out what to do tomorrow and to download some picture of the day.

I started at around 10 from Imst, and drove small roads to Insbruck and then on the old road through the Brenner pass. Actually, I didn’t realize that I passed the Brenner pass, it was really a walk in the park in comparison to my driving last year in Albania. After Brenner, I continued up to the Penser Joch (2.200 meters). Also a very easy drive but with some fantastic views. Took a short stop at the top before I continued down again. Unfortunately, there was an accident on the road, and I got stuck for more than an hour. Coming down on the Italian side made the temperature rise, and soon it was 25 degrees. Time to remove the extra fleece:-)! Took a coffee break and decided that Verona was the town to visit. Found a good hotel in the centre of town and booked it via the hotels.com app. Drove small roads all the way down to Verona. Found the hotel and got help to get to the room. After a while I got a call from the owner, she was a bit surprised since she was expecting a lady, but then I showed up and took the room. But she found my booking and everything got sorted out. Will try to do a quick walk around Verona tomorrow morning, before I move on on my way further south. Here are some pictures from todays trip:

Arrived in Imst in Austria. Mainly motorways through Germany, but then some fine roads when I entered into Austria. Have a room at Gasthouse Sonne in Imst. My plan tomorrow was to cross the Alps via Sölden and then the Timmelsjoch, but after checking the weather forecast I have to rethink. It will be -6 degrees tomorrow, and that’s maybe not the best temperature for driving a motorbike on mountain roads. So I’ll go back to the plan using the old Brenner pass, even there I most likely will run into temperatures below zero. After the Brenner pass, I’ll go to Penserjoch, hopefully it will stay at zero degrees as the current forecast says. From there, hmm, I have to think tonight. That will be my evening task, to decide and book something in Italy.

Sorry, internet is not working! Might add some pictures later on