Have you ever been in Italy?
 

Bikers,

Some of you might already know that I'm about to start my 6-month adventure in Italy. (www.ridesoul.net/fammi-strada/?lang=en)

I will start this trip without an established itinerary, so I'm keen to know
- Have you been in Italy before? which part of it?
- Are there specific places would you be glad to read my reports about?

...I will take notes, I promise!

Alessandro

OK, I'll kick things off - Back in the Jurassic era I caught the ferry to Greece from Otranto a few times. Everytime I was there it was straight in, find the port and onto the boat. I've often wondered whether I should have spent a few days discovering the area. Maybe you could do it for me and report back.

Oh, and while you're there, I lost a great pair of bike gloves somewhere in the port. You couldn't see if they're still there could you? :rofl:

I will definitely go to Puglia and report my feelings to you! I'm keen to go there, because it will be my first time.

About your "great pair of bike gloves" I should warn you that you have lost them in Italy. Any chances to have them back? :nono:

Alessandro :thumbup1:

yep
 

i fell out with itally after my first visit.
i was doing a low buget trip about europe, landed in italy from france.
i was going to go down italy and cross over into greece or something, but..
first day in, i think it was somewhere called PARMA? it was nice and warm so i took my boots off and had a lie down on a park bench... woke up and my boots were gone, just a wore out old pair of hiking boots. but i damn well liked them!
after that i moved on,
each day after that, in each place i left the bike over night, someone had been through everything not locked on my bike and stolen what they could, which at this point was just my food and water in my tank bag.
not a happy experiance.
i know thats not what you asked for but i fancied a rant.
other than that, lovely country.

Sadly I have to agree with you! Italians are great people if you ask them a favor or to welcome you in thier country but on the other hand it seems that if they let free to behave they surely missbehave....
By the way I hope italians aren't "all" that way:thumbup1:

Alessandro

Are you guys joking, right?

Usually I'm not used to defend my country, but this kind of things happens everyday in ALL the western countries, especially in the big cities.

Hi Crisidsto,

I agree with you but I have met many bikers during my trips and it seems that they always told me "Italy it's a very beautiful country, but I got robbed or the italian drivers are crazy ecc..ecc...you know that stuff"

Then, even though I'm here to fire back all these "way of saying" because all the italians definitely aren't thiefs , when it comes to read stories like Rymm's one i can't deny his displeasure!

Alessandro,
RIDESOUL

true, it does happen everywhere, but on my trip italy was especially bad. after a month in spain only my tent was stolen (at a festival, so i let that slide) but no one ever opened my tankbag
i stayed much longer in germany, and even in the big cities like hamburg, i could leave my clothes out on my bike to dry all day and nothing was missing.
dont get me wrong, i'm certainly not saying all Italians are thieves, or that they arent nice people, just that i had a bad time with them there. enough for it not just to be bad luck (at least 3 times in 3 cities i think)
just fair warning to others, who knows? maybe i was just extremely unlucky there and lucky elsewhere?
lovely country though, i was sad to miss it.

Usualy the locals are not the (only) "problem" . In "more tourist" places gather scum from all europe (better opportunity to steal something) . I have "the same experience" as rymm on Montenegro coast (inland no one touch anything) .

+1 to that. In something like 15 visits to Italy on bikes and open topped kit cars, I have never had anything stolen, but I have always avoided the tourist hot spots.
I've been mostly in the north, around the lakes and the Alps, but have been all the way down to Sicily, and around the Targa Florio circuit. There is just so much to see, and the best bits, most people don't see.

I ve been in northern italy (Dolomites), nothing was ever touched. some ppl even left their cellphones in the showers to charge at the socket to use for shaving at the mirror - after some time someone walked around and asked who had forgotten his phone....

Yeah, the northern Italy it's special. People respect other people, it's going to the south that the situation gets worse.....and I'm a center italy writer from Rome, saying that!

Alessandro

well i guess ppl also live from tourists in nortehrn italy..
i will see what i will find out in croatia soon... but i guess one can have bad luck everywhere...

The problem that we have in Italy lies in the weakness of our Laws, that are not updated anymore to nowaday's crime levels.

Our country has become the paradise of the scum that comes from some other Countries (Europe and non-European ones) knowing that they can do almost whatever they want and get away with it quite easily, thanks to the fact that our prisons are full, so judges tend to avoid the locking up of people responsible of minor crimes.

Being a member of a family traditionally employed in Law Enforcement (Italian State Police) I know what I'm talking about, unfortunately...

Absolutely not true.
I'm from the north and I can assure you we have the same problems as in the center and in the south.
Big cities are the most problematic, some cities are worst than others, but it has nothing to do with north or south.
You can have some BIG problems if you are in the wrong neighborhood in Milan, you can have your pocket stolen in Rome Termini station, or your new expensive rolex stolen in Naples: it can happen everywere, like in almost all the western big cities.

WTF are you writing???
Are you telling me all the crime comes from people who comes from outside Italy????
This is one of the craziest thing I ever read.
There is crime from italians, and there is crime from foreigners, as in all the western counties