Had a good week in Tuscany with bro (STD4) & mate on (Heave Ho) 848; staying at an agritourismo farm just outside San Gimignano. Took the Autoslaap trein there and back from Den Bosch, which was interesting. Bike with DP touring screen at it's highest point just made it under the top deck! Did factory tour and surrounding tourist hot spots. Toll road surfaces were crap. Italians like tail gating and fuel was Euro 1.76 a litre on average.
+1 for the Passo della Futa and the Passo del Muraglione for that matter. Did a great circular route taking in both and much more last year.
A good idea for the train would be to put paint protection film on the top of your helmet. As Biot says the height is limited on the lower deck (1.55m). I found it worse riding off the train, just getting moving was the problem. Of course you didn't have to wear a crash helmet, at least at the Italian end, as Biot demonstrates: We were booked on the same train on the way down and my bike was directly behind Biot's on the train. It was really good to meet another forum member quite by chance when abroad. My wife and I toured around central Italy for a couple of weeks; taking in Pisa, Siena, Ovieto, Assis, Arezzo, Bologna, Monterosso al Mare and Lucca. Obviously we did the Ducati factory tour/museum while in Bologna. We "let the train take the strain" for the return trip as well. Did the Passo Della Futa on a Sunday afternoon, there were loads of bikes about including a Hypermoto six foot up a near vertical bank before a corner. I have no idea how it got there, the rider was OK and his mates were helping him and acting as marshals. Luckily we had no rain while riding the bike until we got back to the UK. Just as well as the back roads in the hills are very twisty with poor road surfaces. Did have a minor off early in the tour when we tipped over while stopped on some gravel at the side of the road to reattach the Quick-Lock tank bag. BarkBusters saved the clutch lever and hand-guard, there were some scratches to the pannier and the rear pannier mounting point was damaged. The pannier did have a bit of lateral movement at the rear but this didn't cause a problem for the rest of the tour. I've ordered replacement "Tail Guard Bottom", just over £100 - could have been worse. As my wife doesn't like doing too many hours a day on the back of the bike, it would have taken us a week just to get to Italy and back. We'll definitely be using the Autoslapptrein again, maybe on a tour of Sardinia next year.
Nodrog pm me with what you want to know re Autoslaap trein etc. As above, will use it again. Missed ferry on way back due to train being stuck 20 minutes away from Den Bosch station due to a double suicide off a bridge over the tracks! An hour and half late getting bikes off so just missed ferry by a whisker. Despite spirited riding through Holland . On plus side found a superb family run hotel 3 minutes from the ferry terminal and they let us put our bikes in the beer garden. It was The Grand Hotel, Reitdijkstraat 96, 3151 GK, Hoek Van Holland.
Dutchgixxer, didn't do those roads sadly. Took wiggly road south from factory which the test riders use allegedly. which was very twisty. Did find an excellant road on way back from Volterra which was all 2nd gear up and down for about 7 kloms. Only to find 2 huge concrete blocks in the road, closing it. So had to ride it in reverse back to a major junction. Bummer
