Garda Adventure
Monday, May 2nd, 2005
As promised, here is a story about motorcycles and sailboats.
Busy week here in Milan. Luci and I did our medical and dental exams which involved running all around the city to different offices getting signatures and talking health. Luckily we found a doctor who speaks English so we didn’t have to translate all the paperwork given to us by Raytheon.
To add water to our bureaucratic swimming pool, we bought a Motorcycle. It is a 1991 Honda TransAlp XL600V. We have been talking about getting one for years but never had the time to go through the process; and believe me it is a process. We are really spoiled in the states when it comes to changing the ownership of a vehicle. In Italy, to first make up a contract between the buyer and seller agreeing on a price. Then you make an appointment at the driving school to transfer the ownership. Both parties must fax a copy of their identity card and social security card to the office of the driving school. Then both parties meet at the driving school and wait in line to see a registrar to have another contract registered. The change of ownership costs differ from school to school so it is best to shop around. We got a good price at about $250. And to think, all we have to do is scribble a couple of lines on a piece of paper.
Anyway, we have a motorcycle now. It is fun. A little less maneuverable in city traffic than Luci’s mother’s Aprilia Havana 50cc that we were using before but it is much more comfortable on the cobble stoned streets of Milan’s old city. We were originally planning on taking it on a camping trip to Sardinia and southern Italy but I think we have decided to take the ferry from Venice to Greece where the weather is more favorable this time of year. We plan to leave when we get our work stuff for next year sorted out.
In the meantime, we organized a little sailing trip for Luci’s parents and us for the weekend on the largest lake in Italy, Lago di Garda. We got us a Beneteau 212 for 2 nights and 2 days on the lake. A little boat, it is prefect for lake cruising though a boat a couple of feet longer would a been a little more comfortable. On Friday afternoon, after Luci and I got our PPDs checked and the Pandolfis got out of work we left for the lake; them in the Fiat and I on my new bike. The plan was to get the boat in the afternoon and spend the first night at the marina.
In the morning I awoke with a slight headache from the grappa at dinner the night before and from Renato’s thunderous snoring. After breakfast we were ready to get underway. There wasn’t much wind so we motored for an hour or so until the wind picked up. Then we sailed up the lake with moderate winds, past a sailboat race, to the town of Malcesine. A nice little town on the Veneto side of the lake with beautiful castle and a friendly town center; or so it seemed. Because we didn’t want a repeat of the morning headaches we laid off the grappa after dinner and turned in relatively early. We bought ear plugs to help us sleep.
At about 3:30 in the morning I heard what I thought was Ida going to the bathroom. When I rolled over and saw that she was still in her berth I knew immediately what the noise was: someone stealing our outboard! Luci was awake at this point and agreed with my summation. Knowing that something had to be done, I got up and stuck my head out of the curtain that hung over the hatch. There was a rather tall lanky skinhead messing around with the clamps on the motor. I yelled something at him, surprising the shit out of him, and he briefly looked from me to the motor as if he was trying to decide whether he could get the motor off and run before I got to him.
The next thing I knew I was falling to the floor of the boat after taking a blow to the head from another thief on the deck above me. By now everyone in the boat was awake and they all screamed in unison and ran out onto the deck. The thieves had run off and the motor was still there. Renato stood watch until it got light and then got a couple more hours of sleep in and I woke up with a headache in the morning.
Despite the strange events of the night before everyone was in a pretty good mood in the morning. We had favorable winds so we made the best of it and got underway as soon as we had had breakfast. We sailed along the cliff side which makes up the NW bank of the lake and watched the second day of the sailing race. We really had a great day sailing and I got the Pandolfis involved in the sailing with Renato at the helm and Ida at the sheets.
We got back to the Marina by mid afternoon and I took the back roads back to Milan. The end of an odd weekend, indeed.
Luke