Page 173 - A Life - my Live - my path
P. 173
Harley-Davidson trips
In 2003, I came up with the idea of organizing a run in
Tuscany along the lines of our trips to the USA. I first talked
about it to our USA run and trip organizer, who thought it
was an excellent idea. To keep up with the organization of
American trips, I set off in mid-April for 3 days of
reconnaissance. The small roads of Tuscany are not the big
roads of the USA, all tarmac, straight and often with very
wide bends. For the record, I don't recall seeing a hairpin
bend in the USA, even once.
The minitrip was organized from May 28 to June 1,
2003. We left Gosselies airport at 6:30 am and arrived in
Pisa at 8:00 am. As we all had to leave early, we stayed at the
Hotel Président in Brussels the night before, so that we could
spend the evening together and take the bus to Gosselies.
Arriving in Pisa, we took possession of our bikes, which
our friends had transported by truck. One of them had a
137
removal company well equipped for this type of transport.
Given the pattern of our visits and the mapping of the region,
our daily stages did not exceed 70-80 km, except for the
return trip to Pisa - partly on freeway - for which we covered
180 km.
On Day 1, we visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa and then took
the Pisa - San Gimignano - Siena road. The 'Il Mulino' hotel
where we stayed was 7 km from Siena.
On day 2, our run took us through the Chianti region,
passing through the villages of Castellina in Chianti, Radda
137 Stéphane (mover) and Jacky (Harley-Davidson mecanic)
161