Travel-Lens

Day 11

July 30

Bologna

Leaving Murano, I called for a boat taxi the night before and had him pick us up right near the hotel in Murano.  We took that last boat ride from the island of Murano to Venezia with the sun coming up behind the boat as if it were pushing us forward on our journey.  The waters were calm in Venezia with very little activity. There were a few cargo boats bringing in supplies.  We were at the train station early enough to get some coffee and breads and waited for our train to dock.  We had a regular train to Bologna and it took just a couple of hours to put up with the constant change of pasengers.  We were headed for Bologna for one reason and one reason only, the Ducati factory.  My son and I are huge motorcycle fans and this would be like Mecca for Motorcycle enthusiasts.  

There would be only one problem, what to do with our luggage.  My first thought was to leave the luggage in lockers at the train station but I wasn't sure what accomadations they would have, if any. Once we arrived in Bologna I found that the train station did have acomodations but not lockers.  I wasn't comfortable leaving them in an open room being watched by whomever so we took them and rented a car to both, keep the luggage and use to drive to the motorcycle factory.  

The directions were clear and easy and we made our way to the factory in about twenty minutes.  We parked and found our way to the front gate to wait in a very small, select group of few people.  We quickly got into groups of Italian and English speakers and headed into the plant.  I still can't get over that their lounge is an actual cafe.  Employees can take a break and get an espresso and a snack, then get back to work.  Coffee is an intricate part of their lives so I'm really not that surprised.  

The inside was broken up into sections. Different bikes were being built in different sections and that determined what we could see.  We could only really see the Monster being built.  It's their least expensive bike.  I did however see something very strange.  So strange that the tour guide didn't even know what it was.  A bike with a front end that looked as if it were the infamous Desmosidici but the rest of the bike was completely different.  Is there another one the horizon?  We shall see.  The factory tour was great but we had to get the car back and get of of Bologna to get to a little town in northern Italia that I love so very much, Piacenza. So after the two hour tour, we asked a few questions, took a few more photos and crawled out to the hot asphalt street like toddlers relunctantly leaving the park. The parking lot was full of Ducatis and a Ferrari.  We are in Italia you know.