If you’ve been riding scooters for a while and haven’t been on a ‘proper’ adventure, why not start planning one for 2027? Martyn Peacock and a few NVLSC members (and friends) decided this year’s Vespa Roma would be the perfect time to spread their wings and go on a big adventure, most of them on classic scooters.
The event itself is often only a very small part of a much bigger experience, and unless you’ve done it, you’ll never know just how good it feels to be on the road, riding to a different location virtually every day.
Day 9: Sunday
It was an early morning start for the first bit of proper maintenance on any of our Vespa 2-strokes. A fray in the throttle cable was causing the throttle slide on Lynn’s PX200 to hang up; this required a replacement inner cable, which didn’t take too long.
We were being joined for the return journey from Rome, back to the UK, by Mo Granville from Billingham on her ET4; she didn’t fancy doing the long ride back home solo, and we were more than happy to let her tag along with our group.
Mo turned up to our hotel about 8.30 am just as we were all getting ready for the off. At this stage, nobody was too despondent about heading back towards home, with The Dolomites, Austria and the Black Forest still to come, we still had plenty of our adventures to look forward to.
All together now
All the way up into Tuscany, with the number of other riders, it often seemed like sitting in a mass ride out, with us passing dozens of other Vespas and other Vespas buzzing past us – a few times it was quite difficult to distinguish that the riders in our group were still all together.
We found a quaint little village café at lunchtime for a sandwich and a much-needed drink in the shade, as once again it was 40°C. There were some awesome photo stops along the way, including the Cypress Conifer tree-lined driveway that leads up to a Villa, the ‘Agriturismo Poggio Covili’ that is so picturesque that it’s regularly used by the tourist board to entice you to visit Tuscany.
With the first 200 miles chalked off our return journey, we arrived about 6 pm at a lovely, family-run villa at De Vinci, near Empoli, for some fine dining & our night’s accommodation.
Even after 80,000 miles the Italian ladies are still mad for it!
80 years and 80,000 miles
We headed north out of Rome at a steady pace; dozens of other scooter clubs were using the same SS2 route out of Lazio. We were still in the Lazio Region when a quirky coincidence occurred – Vespa’s 80th Birthday weekend and the odometer on my T5 rolled over from 79,999 to 80,000 miles.
Day 10: Crackin’ up
Yet another day of searing heat awaited us the next day, as we tried to mile-munch the 205 miles from Empoli up to Castelfranco in Veneto. Our progress was hampered along the way with Lynn’s clutch playing up; changing gear was awkward as the plates were binding badly and selecting neutral became a real pain. The exhaust on Trevor’s PX200 cracked mid-afternoon but was strapped together well enough to get him to the Castelfranco Hotel, where he swapped it for a substitute from the support van. Fortunately, we still had time to make use of the lovely swimming pool before brushing up for evening dinner.
Day 11 Tuesday: Routine maintenance
We were up early doors outside our Castelfranco Hotel with Lynn’s ride on its side, supported by cushions, whilst her clutch was overhauled. Fitting a fresh set of plates before breakfast remedied the problem. The rear tyre tread was also getting rather low after 2,000 miles on this journey, so we took the opportunity to fit the new spare wheel to the rear hub and demote the worn rear wheel to the spare-wheel harness.
In the grand scheme of things, it was a much easier day ahead of us, just a 95-mile ride into the Dolomite Mountains. We had plenty of time for drink stops, photo stops, and a bit of videoing.
Wile E. Coyote busy with his ACME
The most notable road of the day was a short, steep section that climbed up to the San Boldo Pass, about six traverses of the mountainside and at the end of each traverse the hairpin bends were set into tunnels, blasted into the rock face. The whole section of side-to-side traverses with seven tunnels was all controlled by traffic lights at the top and bottom of the pass; it was all very wonderfully engineered and unique.
We had the good fortune during another day of scorching sunshine to stumble across a glorious ice cream parlour in one of the small towns at around 3 pm – they had a serious array of every flavour imaginable, with Gilly, our group’s official ‘Gelate Connoisseur’ going back for a second helping.
‘Rest’ day
After refuelling for the final leg of the day, the next stop was our hotel at Rocco Pietore in the Dolomites, and the views were absolutely stunning. This was one of the few occasions when it was actually worth us unpacking our bags, as we were there for two nights.
A cool beer was in order to unwind before a relaxing meal and a good night’s sleep ahead of our planned loop around the Dolomites the following day. The plan is to take on four mountain passes in a loop that makes its way up to Cortina D’Ampezzo, venue of the 2026 Winter Olympics, before heading back to the Hotel Albe in Rocco Pietore.
Le Dolomiti
Our Dolomites day started off again in blazing sunshine; we headed off westerly on our loop but didn’t get too far, as we spotted some intriguing, larger-than-life wood carvings just a couple of villages along the Via Marmolada SP641 road. The girls insisted on a leisurely browse of not just the one wood carving shop in Sottoguda-Palue, but both of them! Eventually our ride continued past Lago Fedaia & across the Fedaia Pass before we called into Canazei for a planned petrol stop; the place was rammed with tourists, including ourselves, of course!
From Canazei we headed north along lovely, but busy roads, before turning east and heading towards Arabba over the Passo Pordoi. What a road, and the scenery was breathtaking; the rock formations in the Dolomites look like they’re from another world.
Passo Falzerego
We stopped at the top of Passo Pordoi for photos; after a few minutes, we noticed horrible black clouds rolling in, so we decided to make a dash to Arabba, the next town.
We found a place to sit down for lunch just as the heavens opened – the most torrential downpour quickly turned the roads into a fast-flowing stream. This was the first rain we’d seen so far on this trip, but after pizza and a coffee, it had eased off enough for us to move on.
The next leg of our loop was the scenic climb up the SP48, the Passo Falzarego. We stopped at the 2117 m pass top for the popular gift shop, more photos and to admire the Lagazuoi cable car – which could take you further up to the 2,800 m summit in under three minutes. With the odd gust of wind making the gondola sway over its 630m vertical drop, it looked slightly precarious; rather sensibly, we all decided to give it a miss!
Thunder in the mountains
We continued to Cortina D’Ampezzo, refuelling on our arrival. Overhead, more ominous black clouds were moving in, so we took a decision to cut our losses and make a dash for it in an attempt to beat the stormy weather. This turned out to be seriously bad judgment, as seven miles down the road there was a crackle of thunder and a huge lightning bolt. We sought refuge in a coffee shop for 30 minutes, and although the thunder and lightning subsided, the rain persisted.
We were still 25 miles from the hotel, across the Passo Giau. Wet roads, standing water and hairpin bends are not a good combination on 2-wheels, so the going was slow, the going was wet and inevitably we got drenched.
Day 13: Germany
Today’s shift in the saddle commenced with our final Dolomites pass, the Passo Sella, more scenic views and more incredible rock formations. We hooked up with the old SS12 non-motorway route over the Brenner Pass, crossing the Italian/Austrian border.
After a burger & a soft drink, it was a quick skirt past Innsbruck, across Austria and into Germany. After five legs of our adventure with no exhaust, Paul had shot off ahead on his GTS to get to SIP Scootershop before they closed – for a replacement muffler.
Our hotel beside Ammersee in Bavaria was lovely, but it was dawning on all of us that we were most certainly well on our way home – the main points of focus and the best parts of our adventure were now behind us.
Performance and style
Next morning, from Diessen-am-Ammersee it was a short hop up to Landsburg-am-Lech for a visit to SIP. The scooter shop is a far more colossal and impressive operation than I’d ever imagined. We were greeted by Alexander Barth in the SIP coffee shop & café, who handed us out one each of the exclusive SIP scooter visitor stickers.
A guided tour of the phenomenal SIP outfit followed, around the workshop, through the gigantic warehouses and past all the conveyor belts in the dispatch area. I was amazed at the number of loaded pallets of scooter parts sitting on the loading bay awaiting the next articulated lorry to pull up and collect them.
Our quick 20-minute drop into SIP quickly transpired into a 2-hour visit because of the tour, and by the time Dawn, with plastic in hand, had been served in the gift shop.
“Yes, officer, it’s a fifty”
We set off from SIP with a view of making up for lost time, but our intentions were scuppered just down the road. The German Polizei had set up one of their all too familiar 2-wheel vehicle check operations.
We were ushered into a lay-by for license checks, and thankfully everything was in order. The officers were amazed to hear about the nature of our adventure; they soon seemed more intrigued by our story than by their concern for vehicle compliance and rider conformity.
After handing out NVLSC stickers to the Polizei team, they were in jovial spirits as they wished us a safe, trouble-free onward journey and waved us on, before dealing with the next pack of bikers they’d just pulled in.
The long way up
What time remained of today, plus a full day tomorrow, was now all about covering 500 miles through the Black Forest and across France to get us back up to Saint-Omer in the North.
Whilst it was pleasant enough meandering around the Black Forest, I’d be lying if I said other than this particular 500 miles turned into anything other than a relentless, long slog. Still, ‘no pain, no gain’ as they say, we had enjoyed the tour immensely, and there were no regrets and I would certainly do it all again another year.
Day 16:
From Saint-Omer, it was a quick dash to Calais for Le Shuttle; before you knew it, we were disembarking at Folkestone and riding on the left-hand side of the road again, dodging potholes as you do.
In summary
The scooters, by far and large, had excelled themselves. We’d ridden roads we could have only dreamt about, we’d seen astonishing places, we’d lived through the picture-postcard settings, we’d had the privilege of many awesome experiences and ticked many items off the bucket list.
Money well spent – and lots of it! So, we’d best get saving ready for the next time!
Words and photos: Martyn Peacock, Northampton NLVSC
