About a year ago my bride and I got to go on an Italian cruise with my father in law on the Costa Fortuna a sister ship of the Costa Concordia no less. Not something we do very often as in never done it before. I didn't catch the captain's name and we didn't run in to anything or get our feet wet so in that respect it was an outstanding cruise. I'd like to go on another one some day. We got to see a good part of Italy and a little of Croatia and a couple of the thousands of Greek Isles. Along with every thing else I was interested in the motorcycles.
Submitted by David Salter
Croation BMW Police Bike, Dubrovnik, Croatia.
There are a huge number of Motorcycles and scooters in Milan and surrounding area and they flow in traffic and I mean flow. At a stop sign or stop light it is perfectly acceptable for half a dozen two wheelers to ease up between and on all sides of stopped 4 wheeled traffic and move on ahead on the green light much in contrast to the strict lane discipline we follow here in this country, lane splitting on California freeways excepted.
I didn't really get to speak much with any Italian riders. I spoke with one guy on a Honda liter bike of some sort at a truck stop once but his English was on a par with my Italian so other than basic good will not much in the way of information or knowledge was exchanged. It looked like most riders there ride more aggressively then we do here in the sense that traffic is heavier, roads narrower and spaces are tighter so riding is more a matter of being quick to exploit opportunities in traffic by riding efficiently rather than just cruising along non throttle hand held at a jaunty angle on hip as often seen on Henderson and Main Streets here.
Everyone wore helmets and most wore leather or armored jackets. All in all it looked to me that while riding in Italy would require one to step it up a bit in the area of competency it looked like it would be a lot of fun. Perhaps someday I can return and learn to ride with Italian style.
http://www.galesburg.com/blogs/rio_rider