wildiary: a photo log from wildays 2018, the festival for motorbike and outdoor enthusiasts

a few weeks ago, our lambretta, Marco and I had the chance to attend, along with hundreds of other motorbike & outdoor enthusiasts, to Wildays, a crazy festival at the racetrack of Varano de Melegari in Emilia Romagna where we spent 3 days surrounded by wilderness, vintage, gasoline, cool people, aperitivi and music.

for a very long time I've been looking at the motorcycle scene as something very far and different from our taste, experience and expectations. two different worlds. probably since our road trip to Vietnam, where we rent a vintage Ural sidecar, I've been feeling differently, seeing a bigger and bigger common ground made of shared excitement and passion for being on the road on two wheels, no matter the size or the age. 

and, speaking of shared passions, this field trip gave us also the opportunity to fulfil a longstanding dream of Marco: a visit to the Ferrari's factory and museum in Maranello. 

romantic weekend on the roads of Collio, on the border between Italia and Slovenia

busy days and weeks, and then suddenly, like a breath of fresh air, a couple of days just for ourselves: riding together under the spring rain, drying up under the warm golden light of the afternoon, exploring new roads, tasting new things, finding our temporary hideaway in the woods.

as much as I can enjoy our daily life, jobs and routine at home, I love our lambretta weekends away. they kind of charge my batteries.

this time, we went a few kilometers east, to the famous wine region called Collio Goriziano in its italian part, and Brda when you cross the national border and enter to Slovenia.

Arte Sella: contemporary art in the woods

one of the (many) perks of film photography is that you look at your pictures more often. a few days ago I was tidying one of my drawers and found the roll taken in a beautiful summer day from last year.

it was august and we had just come back from our lambretta road trip in southern France. you may expect we'd take a little break from the road, but clearly we were feeling nostalgic already, and went to a field trip to Arte Sella, an international outdoor exhibition of contemporary art set up between the fields, woods and mountains of Trentino Alto Adige, in the municipality of Borgo Valsugana.

spring weekend in Veneto: welcome to La Scuola b&b, a charming school - themed guesthouse

cherry blossoms, lambretta, some time just for us, and a charming, romantic retreat on the hills of our beloved region: these were the ingredients of our last weekend on the road. how could I ask for more? 

the road to Lusiana, passing through Bassano del Grappa, Marostica and the cherry tree road | watercolor map

vintage tour in Val d'Orcia

Val d'Orcia with a rented lambretta

that's on top of my wish list: to be able to travel with a lambretta anywhere we want. yes, we can drive our own or ship it, but we don't aways have the time to do something like that (not to mention the costs). and to rent an original vintage scooter is almost impossible. almost.

visiting Tuscany on a vintage Italian scooter

the dreamer Dario fought the impossible founding Vintage Tours, an agency renting vespas, lambrettas and vintage cars in one of the most beautiful region of Italy, Tuscany.

7 reasons we will visit Sicilia again {plus: a BIG news!}

why everyone should visit Sicily it's quite obvious. if you can't figure it out yet you either a) don't have enough informations b) are insensitive to beauty.

anyway, i feel that one time is not enough either. Sicily is a region you should visit over and over again. here, i tell you why we will.

charming Marzamemi

from Sicilia with love: travel souvenirs

choosing, collecting, arranging travel souvenirs is a form of art. 

in my everyday life i do love to be surrounded by things that remind me of the time away from home. little pieces from other realities, far and different, that from a certain point had become part of mine. i dedicated an entire post to the most loved of my souvenirs de voyage.  

our road trip in Sicily as well, brought back home some precious mementos. let me show them to you. 

Sicilan colour palette

Noto | Sicilian baroque colour palette

in Sicily, it was the first time i kept an illustrated travel journal updated while we were on the road. the drawings and the coloring of the ones i did before, were made after coming back home.

analogue walk in Palermo

i've never been to a city that resembled Palermo. anyway, as people usually approach new things by comparing them to what's already known, i immediately thought the city has the same decadent charm and distracted elegance that Lisbon and Venice somehow have. but it's also pompous and proud as Rome can be. the open air markets are loud and picturesque, the traffic on the roads is a nightmare. they reminded me of Morocco.

what makes the difference is people

the back of the cottage, the blue entrance to our apartment | nikon F801s + Kodak Ektar 100

i have already told you something about how special our staying in the southern corner of Sicily had been. i have to admit, it was hard to leave.

now, one month after we came back from our Sicilia trip, when i think about it, the first images that occur to me come from our days over there: wandering around Pachino countryside, exploring Vendicari Natural Reserve, drinking aperitivo in Marzamemi, watching the pretty wooden boats in Portopalo di Capo Passero, having gelato in Noto, walking on the seaside, the cottage's blue doors, cozy porch and hammock... ♥

Venezia, an introduction

there is a novel, called the Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino, where the venetian explorer Marco Polo has a long conversation with the emperor Kublai Khan, telling him tales about cities and exploring the imagination. then, you'll find this dialogue:

"Sire {Marco Polo to Kublai Khan}, now I have told you about all the cities I know."
"There is still one of which you never speak"
Marco Polo bowed his head.
"Venezia" the Khan said.
Marco smiled. "What else do you believe I have been talking to you about?"

which coffee are you?

to properly greet a new monday morning, i’d like to talk about the most classic of all italian classics {even more classically italian than lambretta} : espresso and his large coffee family.

what does coffee mean to you? 

espresso is made by forcing hot water under high pressure through ground coffee

{sensational} Umbria. November, 14th-16th

in the very heart of Italy, there is a region named Umbria, nestled beetwen the most known Tuscany and Lazio, cradle of the Roman civilization. to me, Umbria means hills, rich traditions, stunning sacred art, medieval villages (on the top of the hills), tasty food in which local ingredients succeed in expressing themselves, preserving the peculiar flavours given them from a generous land.
every time i have the chance to visit this region, i came home willing to go back soon, to see more, to taste more. this time was no exception.

the three stops of this brief field trip were Perugia, Orvieto and Montefalco.
the main colors were an intense, dark green, some warm browns and some touch of red. an evocative mist wrapped the foot of the hills, letting perched villages and pointy cypresses surface. the fog, far from being gloomy as it can be in other places, softly followed us, framing the landscapes full of vineyards and olive trees.

italian lexicon for the curious traveller

if you have been reading this blog for a while, you probably came across italian words like osteria, agriturismo, malga...
i studied foreign languages for a few years, and i know that some words just cannot be translated, without giving up a small part of their original meaning. so, it's about time to share a little lexicon designed for anyone who wants to travel and discover the rural Itay, and for anyone who is naturally curious.
this new blog section is called italian lexicon for curious travellers and from now on you can find it n the right column. i will keep it updated, hope you like it!
have a lovely weekend ♥